Python, how to create an empty file

To create a file, use the open() global function.

It accepts 2 parameters: the file path, and the mode.

You can use a as the mode, to tell Python to open the file in append mode:

file = '/Users/flavio/test.txt'

open(file, 'a').close()

#or

open(file, mode='a').close()

If the file already exists, its content is not modified. To clear its content, use the w flag instead:

open(file, 'w').close()

#or

open(file, mode='w').close()

When you open a file, you must remember to close it after you’ve finished working with it. In this case, we close it immediately, as our goal is to create an empty file.

Remember to close the file, otherwise it will remain open until the end of the program, when it will be automatically closed.

Alternatively, you can use with:

with open(file, mode='a'): pass

This will automatically close the file.

Creating a file can raise an OSError exception, for example if the disk is full, so we use a try block to catch it and gracefully handle the problem by printing an error message:

file = '/Users/flavio/test.txt'

try:
    open(file, 'a').close()
except OSError:
    print('Failed creating the file')
else:
    print('File created')