Opens a file for reading only

Opens a file for binary writing

Creates a new file and writes to it, raising an error if the file exists

Appends to an existing file

That the file is writable

That the file exists before opening

That the file is automatically closed

That the file content is flushed after writing

'r'

'w'

'a'

'b'

There is no difference

writelines() adds newline characters automatically

write() writes a single line, writelines() writes multiple lines

write() is faster

An error is raised

The string is converted to bytes

The string is written as-is

The file is automatically converted to text mode

readline()

readlines()

writelines()

read()

They do not require encoding

They must be opened with the 'b' mode

They can only be read line by line

They are slower to read

Moves the cursor to the start of the file

Deletes the content

Skips the first line

Closes the file

To automatically handle closing files

Only for reading files

Only when using binary mode

When writing large files

'x'

'r'

'w'

'a'