# Find best implementation available on the platform try: from cStringIO import StringIO # Much faster, C implementation print "Loaded cStringIO" except: from StringIO import StringIO # Much more portable print "Loaded StringIO" if __name__ == '__main__': # Write to a buffer myoutput = StringIO() myoutput.write("This goes to the buffer") print >>myoutput, "And this too" # Retrieve the value written print myoutput.getvalue() myoutput.close() # Discard buffer memory # Initialize a read buffer myinput = StringIO('Initial value for read buffer') # Read from the buffer print myinput.read()