How to Open a File on the Internet and Check Its Size with Python

Learn how to access an image online and determine its size using Python's urllib library for efficient web data handling.
---

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: How to open the file on internet and check the size

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
How to Open a File on the Internet and Check Its Size with Python

The Problem

Let's outline the questions clearly:

How do you open a URL to access an image?

How can you check the size of that image without downloading it completely?

There are several methods to accomplish this task, but we will focus on a straightforward and efficient way using Python's built-in libraries, rather than using methods like subprocess with curl, which can be more complex and less efficient.

The Solution

Step 1: Import Required Libraries

To get started, we need to utilize Python's urllib library, which is designed for working with URLs. It allows you to open URLs and read data efficiently.

Here’s the Python code snippet for our use case:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 2: Define the URL

Next, we define the URL of the file we want to check. In our example, we will use:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

This is the URL you'll be checking the file size for.

Step 3: Open the URL and Read the Data

Now, let's open the URL and read the data. This allows us to fetch the file information without having to save it on our local storage.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 4: Calculate the Size of the File

To determine the size of the file in kilobytes (KB), we will take the length of the data we retrieved and convert it to KB by dividing by 1024.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 5: Print the File Size

Finally, let's display the file size to the user in a readable format:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Complete Code Example

Here’s the complete code block you can use to check the size of an online file:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Conclusion

In just a few lines of code, you can efficiently access a file online and retrieve its size using Python’s urllib library. This method is not only simple but also effective for quickly checking the size of files hosted on the internet. No need for complex command line instructions or additional packages.

Feel free to try this on any accessible URL, and you'll be able to find out exactly how big that file is in a matter of seconds! Happy coding!