How to copy text file in python

Question

Here's what I want to do:

import copy
def printtext(swefile):
    for row in swefile:
        print(row)
text = open("wordsv.txt","r",encoding="utf-8")
text2 = copy.copy(text)
printtext(text)
print(text2.readlines())

But it is not possible, TypeError: cannot serialize '_io.TextIOWrapper' object. So I wonder if there is a good method for "cloning" the text variable, so that I could print all the lines again. I know that I could just read the file again, but that answer does not solve the bigger problem I have so any suggestion on how to get this done is helpful.

---

Here's the larger context as I haven't been able to solve my problem with your suggestions:

with open(textfilename, "r", encoding = "utf-8") as swefile:
    for row in swefile:
        word = row.strip()
        tempfile = copy.copy(swefile)
        l = getFurthest(word,tempfile)

The thing that I want to happen here is that i want to send the portion of swefile that has not been read yet (i.e. iterated over yet by the for loop) to getFurthest()! And I can't send swefile because that will make the whole thing read so the iterations in the for loop will stop, right? So how can I send only the portion of the textfile that has been read to getFurthest() while still being able to iterate over the rest of it after?

Answer 1

If you're trying to avoid re-opening the file, but want to read it twice, you can use seek():

import copy
def printtext(swefile):
    for row in swefile:
        print(row)
text = open("wordsv.txt","r",encoding='utf-8')
printtext(text)
text.seek(0)
printtext(text)

If you just care about the text, you can do this:

import copy
def printtext(swefile):
    for row in swefile:
        print(row)
text = open("wordsv.txt","r",encoding='utf-8').readlines()
text2 = copy.copy(text)
printtext(text)
printtext(text2)

Here text is a list of the lines in wordsv.txt, and you then copy the list into text2 (i.e. changing text won't change text2).

Answer 2

Alternatively, if you really do want to wind up with two files for some reason, it's best to use shutil.copy to copy it:

import shutil

path = "wordsv.txt"
path2= "wordsv2.txt"
shutil.copy(path, path2)
with open(path, encoding='utf-8') as text, open(path2, encoding='utf=8') as text2:
    # Do something with text, text2 here

Answer 3

Your line text2 = copy.copy(text) does not work because text is a file object only. To "copy" the text in the file, do as follows:

text2 = text.read()

Please note that you don't copy the actual text (content), as strings are immutable.