Python Binary Files

Binary files handle data in the form of bytes. Hence, they can be used to read or write text, images or audio and video files. To open a binary file for reading purpose, we can use 'rb' mode. Here, 'b' is attached to 'r' to represent that it is a binary file. Similarly to write bytes into a binary file, we can use 'wb' mode. To read bytes from a binary file, we can use the read() method and to write bytes into a binary file, we can use the write() methods.

Let's write a program where we want to open an image file like .jpg, .gif or .png file and read bytes from that file. These bytes are then written into a new binary file. It means we are copying an image file as another file.

Python Program to Copy a Binary File

Following example will copy an image file into another file.

#copying an image into a file
#open the files in binary mode 
f1 = open('cat.jpg', 'rb') 
f2 = open('new.jpg', 'wb') 
#read bytes from f1 and write into f2 
bytes = f1.read() 
f2.write(bytes) 
#close the files 
f1.close()