Question

I would like to apply regex to the content of a file without loading the entire file into a string. The RegexObject takes as its first argument a string or a buffer. Is there any way to turn the file into a buffer?

Answer 1

Quote from Python doc:

Buffer objects are not directly
supported by Python syntax, but can be
created by calling the built-in
function buffer().

And some other interesting part:

buffer(object[, offset[, size]])

The object argument must be an object that
supports the buffer call interface
(such as strings, arrays, and
buffers).[…]

File objects does not implement buffer interface – so you have to change its content either into string (f.read()) or into array (use mmap for that).