---
title: "Using the 'With' Statement in Python"
description: "The ’with’ Statement PEP was created way back in 2005, PEP 343 to be precise, but /me notice many still coding with old."
url: "https://h3manth.com/scribe/using-statement-python/"
canonical_url: "https://h3manth.com/scribe/using-statement-python/"
markdown_url: "https://h3manth.com/scribe/blog/using-statement-python.md"
publishDate: "2012-06-29T00:00:00.000Z"
author: "Hemanth HM"
category: "python"
tags: ["python"]
word_count: 325
reading_time_minutes: 2
x_markdown_tokens: 657
content_signal: "ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes"
---

# Using the 'With' Statement in Python

> The ’with’ Statement PEP was created way back in 2005, PEP 343 to be precise, but /me notice many still coding with old.

**The "with" Statement** PEP was created way back in 2005, PEP 343 to be precise, but /me notice many still coding with old syntax with is not bad, but does not look clean?!

So thought of making a small entry here, about using the with statement in python.

> PEP 304 was originally written in first person by Guido, and
>     
>     
>     subsequently updated by Nick Coghlan to reflect later discussion
>     on python-dev. Any first person references are from Guido's
>     original.
>     

Traditional error handling would be to try something, except exception and finally do something else.
    
    
        try:
            <variable> = <value>
            <body>
        except Exception:
            <process exception>
        finally:
            <cleanup>
    

But above can be reduced with the 'with' statement as below :

with_stmt ::= "with" with_item ("," with_item)* ":" suite with_item ::= expression ["as" target] 

**Consider the below example, for some clarity :**

## Opening a file in the required mode

""" for file in openFile('/var/log/h3manth.log',"r"):
    
    
    data = file.read()
    print data
    

"""

def openFile(filename,mode):
    
    
    f = open(filename, mode)
    try:
        yield f
    finally:
        f.close()
    

The above code, can be re-written using the 'with' statement as below :

with open('/var/log/h3manth.log', "r") as fh:
    
    
     data = fh.read()
    

**Some more fun with context managers Python 2.7+ :**

import contextlib

@contextlib.contextmanager def enter_stage(name):
    
    
    print name,' is entering the stage!'
    yield name
    print name,' is at the side-wing.'
    

with enter_stage('Antony') as A, enter_stage('Hop') as H, enter_stage('Kins') as K:
    
    
    print 'inside with statement:', A, H, K
    

Would result in an output as below :

~~Antony is entering the stage! Hop is entering the stage! Kin is entering the stage! inside with statement: A H K Antony is at the side-wing. Hop is at the side-wing. Kin is at the side-wing.~~

It's important to note that :

with A() as a, B() as b:
    
    
    suite
    

## is equivalent to :

with A() as a:
    
    
    with B() as b:
        suite
    

If you have still not bad a habit of using 'with' please do!