Python File seek() Method

Description

The method seek() method sets the file's current position at the offset. The whence argument is optional and defaults to 0 which means absolute file positioning, other values are 1 which means seek relative to the current position and 2 means seek relative to the file's end.

There is no return value. Note that if the file is opened for appending using either 'a' or 'a+', any seek() operations will be undone at the next write.

If the file is only opened for writing in append mode using 'a', this method is essentially a no-op, but it remains useful for files opened in append mode with reading enabled (mode 'a+').

If the file is opened in text mode using 't', only offsets returned by tell() are legal. Use of other offsets causes undefined behavior.

Note that not all file objects are seekable.

Syntax

Following is the syntax for seek() method

fileObject.seek(offset[, whence])

Parameters

• offset -- This is the position of the read/write pointer within the file.

• whence -- This is optional and defaults to 0 which means absolute file positioning, other values are 1 which means seek relative to the current position and 2 means seek relative to the file's end.

Return Value

This method does not return any value.

Example

The following example shows the usage of seek() method.

#!/usr/bin/python

# Open a file
fo = open("foo.txt", "r")
print "Name of the file: ", fo.name

# Assuming file has following 5 lines
# This is 1st line
# This is 2nd line
# This is 3rd line
# This is 4th line
# This is 5th line

line = fo.readline()
print "Read Line: %s" % (line)

# Again set the pointer to the beginning
fo.seek(0, 0)
line = fo.readline()
print "Read Line: %s" % (line)

# Close opend file
fo.close()

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result:

Name of the file:  foo.txt
Read Line: This is 1st line

Read Line: This is 1st line