Python Codecs Open

This tutorial discusses the codecs.open() function in Python.

The codecs.open() function works in parallel with the in-built open() function in Python and opens up files with a specific encoding. By default, it opens a file in the read mode.

The codecs.open() function opens all files in binary mode, even if it isn’t manually mentioned in the syntax of the code. This avoids data loss that may occur when dealing with 8-bit encoding.

The syntax for the codecs.open() function is as follows:

codecs.open(filename, mode='r', encoding=None, errors='strict', buffering=- 1)

The arguments in the syntax of the function depicted above contain their default values.

The codecs.open() function became obsolete after version 2.6 of Python was released. Python added another io.open() function that was utilized to enhance the in-built open() function’s capabilities.

The syntax of the io.open() function, which is mostly compared to the codecs.open() function, is relatively different from the codecs.open() function, which is as follows.

io.open(file, mode='r', buffering=-1, encoding=None,
     errors=None, newline=None, closefd=True, opener=None)

The codecs.open() function, although still existing in the newer versions, has no real value and is mostly utilized for backward compatibility.