[FIXED] How to search and replace text in a file?

Issue

How do I search and replace text in a file using Python 3?

Here is my code:

import os
import sys
import fileinput

print ("Text to search for:")
textToSearch = input( "> " )

print ("Text to replace it with:")
textToReplace = input( "> " )

print ("File to perform Search-Replace on:")
fileToSearch  = input( "> " )
#fileToSearch = 'D:\dummy1.txt'

tempFile = open( fileToSearch, 'r+' )

for line in fileinput.input( fileToSearch ):
    if textToSearch in line :
        print('Match Found')
    else:
        print('Match Not Found!!')
    tempFile.write( line.replace( textToSearch, textToReplace ) )
tempFile.close()


input( '\n\n Press Enter to exit...' )

Input file:

hi this is abcd hi this is abcd
This is dummy text file.
This is how search and replace works abcd

When I search and replace 'ram' by 'abcd' in above input file, it works as a charm. But when I do it vice-versa i.e. replacing 'abcd' by 'ram', some junk characters are left at the end.

Replacing 'abcd' by 'ram'

hi this is ram hi this is ram
This is dummy text file.
This is how search and replace works rambcd

Solution

fileinput already supports inplace editing. It redirects stdout to the file in this case:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import fileinput

with fileinput.FileInput(filename, inplace=True, backup='.bak') as file:
    for line in file:
        print(line.replace(text_to_search, replacement_text), end='')

Answered By - jfs