What is the difference between python s file I O system when using w and wb

Question

Wondering what the real difference is when writing files from Python. From what I can see if I use wor wb I am getting the same result with text.

While learning python one thing was never clear to me. What exactly is the real difference when using the 'w' and 'wb' parameter. They produce identical results. I thought that saving as a binary file would show only binary values in a hex editor, but it also shows text and then ASCII version of that text.

Can both be toggled when saving text?

P.S: I'm a windows user

Answer 1

Only in Windows, in the latter case, .write('\n') writes one byte with a value of 10. In the former case, it writes two bytes, with the values 13 and 10.

You can prove this to yourself by looking at the resulting file size, and examining the files in a hex editor.

In POSIX-related operating systems (UNIX, SunOS, MacOS, Linux, etc.), there is no difference between 'w' and 'wb'.