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Read a text file with pathlib

Open and read UTF-8 text using pathlib.Path — modern and portable.

8 lines 2 views 0 copies Updated May 23, 2026

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files pathlib io

How it works

pathlib.Path wraps file paths with a clean object API. Path.read_text(encoding='utf-8') reads the whole file.

Always specify encoding for text files to avoid platform-specific defaults.

For large files, iterate lines with open() instead of loading everything into memory.

Python

from pathlib import Path

path = Path("notes.txt")
if path.is_file():
    text = path.read_text(encoding="utf-8")
    print(text[:200])
else:
    print("File not found — create notes.txt to try this sample.")

How it works

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