Credit: Michael Kent
You need to pass a file-like object (e.g., the results of a call such as urllib.urlopen) to a function or method that insists on receiving a true file object (e.g., a function such as marshal.load).
To cooperate with such type-checking, we need to write all data from the file-like object into a temporary file on disk. Then, we can use the (true) file object for that temporary disk file. Here's a function that implements this idea:
import types, tempfile CHUNK_SIZE = 16 * 1024 def adapt_file(fileObj): if isinstance(fileObj, file): return fileObj tmpFileObj = tempfile.TemporaryFile while True: data = fileObj.read(CHUNK_SIZE) if not data: break tmpFileObj.write(data) fileObj.close( ) tmpFileObj.seek(0) return tmpFileObj
This recipe demonstrates an unusual Pythonic application of the Adapter Design Pattern (i.e., what to do when you have an X and you need a Y instead). While design patterns are most normally thought of in an object-oriented way, and therefore implemented by writing classes, nothing is intrinsically necessary about that. In this case, for example, we don't really need to introduce any new class, since the adapt_file function is obviously sufficient. Therefore, we respect Occam's Razor and do not introduce entities without necessity.
One way or another, you should think in terms of adaptation, in preference to type testing, even when you need to rely on some lower-level utility that insists on precise types. Instead of raising an exception when you get passed an object that's perfectly adequate save for the technicality of type membership, think of the possibility of adapting what you get passed to what you need. In this way, your code will be more flexible and more suitable for reuse.
Documentation on built-in file objects, and modules tempfile and marshal, in the Library Reference and Python in a Nutshell.