platform independent way of writing files

Question

def writeFile(filename):
    prose = r"<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>"
    startTag = r'<Books>'
    endTag = r'</Books>'
    with open(filename, "+a" ) as f:
        f.write(prose)
        f.write('\n')
        f.write(startTag)
        f.write('\n')
        f.write(endTag)

How do i make this function platform independent so it can work on Windows and Linux/Unix as well Since /n is the new line character on windows.

I am on Python 3.3

"Since /n is the new line character on windows" - it isn't. Newline on windows is `\r\n`, two characters. In any case, you're opening the file in text mode (the default), so it should work fine. — user2357112, Mar 14 '14 at 04:39
You may want to specify an encoding of `'utf-8'` to the `open` call, though. — user2357112, Mar 14 '14 at 04:41

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 14 '14 at 05:24

You need to look in to os module. Especially check os.linesep and os.sep.

os.linesep will give you give correct new line separator, you don't need to check the platorm/os version

os.sep will give you separator for pathname components and again you don't need to check the platform/os version

platform independent way of writing files

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