4.8 cStringIO -- Faster version of StringIO

The module cStringIO provides an interface similar to that of the StringIO module. Heavy use of StringIO.StringIO objects can be made more efficient by using the function StringIO() from this module instead.

Since this module provides a factory function which returns objects of built-in types, there's no way to build your own version using subclassing. Use the original StringIO module in that case.

Unlike the memory files implemented by the StringIO module, those provided by this module are not able to accept Unicode strings that cannot be encoded as plain ASCII strings.

Another difference from the StringIO module is that calling StringIO() with a string parameter creates a read-only object. Unlike an object created without a string parameter, it does not have write methods. These objects are not generally visible. They turn up in tracebacks as StringI and StringO.

The following data objects are provided as well:

InputType
The type object of the objects created by calling StringIO with a string parameter.

OutputType
The type object of the objects returned by calling StringIO with no parameters.

There is a C API to the module as well; refer to the module source for more information.

See About this document... for information on suggesting changes.