How to delete only the content of file in python

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How to delete only the content of file in python

There are several ways of setting the logical size of a file to 0, depending how you access that file:

To empty an open file:

def deleteContent(pfile):
    pfile.seek(0)
    pfile.truncate()

To empty an open file whose file descriptor is known:

def deleteContent(fd):
    os.ftruncate(fd, 0)
    os.lseek(fd, 0, os.SEEK_SET)

To empty a closed file (whose name is known)

def deleteContent(fName):
    with open(fName, "w"):
        pass

I have a temporary file with some content […] I need to reuse that file

That being said, in the general case it is probably not efficient nor desirable to reuse a temporary file. Unless you have very specific needs, you should think about using tempfile.TemporaryFile and a context manager to almost transparently create/use/delete your temporary files:

import tempfile

with tempfile.TemporaryFile() as temp:
     # do whatever you want with `temp`

# <- `tempfile` guarantees the file being both closed *and* deleted
#     on the exit of the context manager

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