How to save file with file name from user using Python?

Last Updated : 13 Jan, 2021

Prerequisites:

Saving a file with the user’s custom name can be achieved using python file handling concepts. Python provides inbuilt functions for working with files. The file can be saved with the user preferred name by creating a new file, renaming the existing file, making a copy of a file(Save As). Let’s discuss these in detail.

Creating a new file

Method 1: Using open() function

We can create a new file using the open() function with one of the access modes listed below.

Syntax:

open( filepath , mode )

Access modes:

Write Only (‘w’): Creates a new file for writing, if the file doesn’t exist otherwise truncates and over-write existing file.

Write and Read (‘w+’): Creates a new file for reading & writing, if the file doesn’t exist otherwise truncates and over-write existing file.

Append Only (‘a’): Creates a new file for writing, if the file doesn’t exist otherwise data being written will be inserted at the end of the file.

Append and Read (‘a+’): Creates a new file for reading & writing, if the file doesn’t exist otherwise data being written will be inserted at the end of the file.

Approach

Get file name from the user
Open a file with mentioned access mode
Create this file with the entered name

Example:

Python3

# path of this script 
directory = "D:\gfg\\"
  
# get fileName from user 
filepath = directory + input("Enter filename: ") 
  
# Creates a new file 
with open(filepath, 'w+') as fp: 
    pass

Output:

Enter filename: newgfgfile.txt

Method 2: Using pathlib library

pathlib offers a set of classes to handle filesystem paths. We can use touch() method to create the file at a given path it updates the file modification time with the current time and marks exist_ok as True, otherwise, FileExistsError is raised.

Syntax:

Path.touch(mode=0o666, exist_ok=True)

Approach

Import module
Get file name from the user
Create a file with the entered name

Example:

Python3

# import pathlib module 
import pathlib 
  
# path of this script 
directory = "D:\gfg\\"
  
# get fileName from user 
filepath = directory + input("Enter filename:") 
  
# To create a file 
pathlib.Path(filepath).touch() 

Output:

Enter filename:gfgfile2.txt

Renaming a file

Method 1: Using the os module

Python’s OS module includes functions to communicate with the operating system. Here, we can use rename() method to save a file with the name specified by the user.

Syntax:

rename(src, dest, *, src_dir_fd=None, dst_dir_fd=None)

Approach:

Import module
Get source file name
Get destination file name
Rename the source file to destination file or directory
If destination file already exists, the operation will fail with an OSError.

Example:

Python3

# import os library 
import os 
  
# get source file name 
src = input("Enter src filename:") 
  
# get destination file name 
dest = input("Enter dest filename:") 
  
# rename source file name with destination file name 
os.rename(src, dest) 

Output:

Enter src filename:D:\gfg\newgfgfile.txt

Enter dest filename:D:\gfg\renamedfile1.txt

Method 2: Using pathlib library

pathlib also provides rename() function to change the name of a file which more or less serves the same purpose as given above.

syntax:

Path(filepath).rename(target)

Approach:

Import module
Get source file name
Get destination file name
Rename source file or directory to the destination specified
Return a new instance of the Path to the destination. (On Unix, if the target exists and the user has permission, it will be replaced.)

Example:

Python3

# import pathlib module 
import pathlib 
  
# get source file name 
src = input("Enter src filename:") 
  
# get destination file name 
target = input("Enter target filename:") 
  
# rename source file name with target file name 
pathlib.Path(src).rename(target) 

Output:

Enter src filename:D:\gfg\gfgfile2.txt

Enter target filename:D:\gfg\renamedfile2.txt

Copying or duplicating a file

Method 1: Using the os module

We can use popen() method to make a copy of the source file to the target file with the name specified by the user.

Syntax:

popen( command, mode , buffersize )

os.popen() get command to be performed as the first argument, access mode as the second argument which can be read (‘r’) or write (‘w’) and finally buffer size. The default mode is read and 0 for no buffering, positive integers for buffer size.

Approach:

Import module
Get source file name
Get destination file name
Copy source to destination

Example:

Python

# import os module 
import os 
  
# get source file name 
src = input("Enter src filename:") 
  
# get destination file name 
destination = input("Enter target filename:") 
  
# copies source to destination file 
os.popen(f"copy {src} {destination}") 

Output:

Enter src filename:D:\gfg\renamedfile1.txt

Enter target filename:D:\gfg\copied-renamedfile1.txt

Method 2: Using the shutil module

The shutil module offers several high-level operations on files and collections of files. Its copyfile() method is used to rename the file with the user preferred name.

Syntax:

shutil.copyfile(src_file, dest_file, *, follow_symlinks=True)

Approach:

Import module
Get source file name
Get destination file name
Copy source file to a new destination file. If both file names specify the same file, SameFileError is raised and if destination file already exists, it will be replaced.

Example:

Python3

# import shutil module 
import shutil 
  
# get source file name 
src = input("Enter src filename:") 
  
# get destination file name 
dest = input("Enter target filename:") 
  
# copies source file to a new destination file 
shutil.copyfile(src, dest) 