How to read a file in other directory in python

Question

I have a file named 5_1.txt in a directory named direct, how can I read that file using read?

I verified the path using :

import os os.getcwd() os.path.exists(direct) 

the result was
True

x_file=open(direct,'r')   

and I got this error :

Traceback (most recent call last): File "<pyshell#17>", line 1, in <module> x_file=open(direct,'r') IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied 

I don't know why I can't read the file ? Any suggestions?

thanks .

Answer 1

Looks like you are trying to open a directory for reading as if it's a regular file. Many OSs won't let you do that. You don't need to anyway, because what you want (judging from your description) is

x_file = open(os.path.join(direct, "5_1.txt"), "r")   

or simply

x_file = open(direct+"/5_1.txt", "r") 

Answer 2

In case you're not in the specified directory (i.e. direct), you should use (in linux):

x_file = open('path/to/direct/filename.txt') 

Note the quotes and the relative path to the directory.

This may be your problem, but you also don't have permission to access that file. Maybe you're trying to open it as another user.