How to Solve Python TypeError: expected str, bytes or os.pathlike object, not textiowrapper

Introduction

When working with files in Python, it’s common to encounter the following error:

TypeError: expected str, bytes or os.pathlike object, not _TextIOWrapper_

Understanding the Error

Functions like os.remove() or os.rename() expect a file path (a string, bytes, or an object implementing os.PathLike), but if you pass a file object (like a _TextIOWrapper_), Python throws this error.

Example to Reproduce the Error

Let’s say you’re working with a file, and you attempt to use os.remove() to delete it but mistakenly pass the file object instead of its file path.

import os

# Create and open a file
with open('example.txt', 'w') as file:
    file.write("This is some content.")

    # Incorrectly attempting to remove the file using the file object
    os.remove(file)

Output:

TypeError: remove: path should be string, bytes or os.PathLike, not TextIOWrapper

In this example, os.remove() expects a file path (a string) but receives the file object, causing the TypeError.

Solution Using .name

To fix this error, you can use the file object’s .name attribute. The .name attribute contains the file’s path, which is what functions like os.remove() expect.

Here’s the corrected version of the code:

import os

# Create and open the file
with open('example.txt', 'w') as file:
    file.write("This is some content.")

    # Correctly use the file's name (path) to remove the file
    os.remove(file.name)

# Verify if the file has been deleted
if not os.path.exists('example.txt'):
    print("File successfully deleted.")

Output:

File successfully deleted.

Explanation of the Solution

• Using .name: Every open file object in Python has a .name attribute, which holds the full path of the file as a string. When working with functions like os.remove(), use file.name instead of the file object itself.
• In this example, os.remove(file.name) correctly passes the file path to the os.remove() function.
• After the file is removed, we check if the file still exists using os.path.exists() to verify the deletion.

Conclusion

The TypeError: expected str, bytes or os.pathlike object, not _TextIOWrapper_ error occurs when you pass a file object instead of its file path. Using the .name attribute of the file object ensures that you’re passing the correct file path to functions that expect it.

Congratulations on reading to the end of this tutorial.

For further reading on errors involving TextIOWrapper, go to the article:

• How to Solve Python TypeError: the JSON object must be str, bytes or bytearray, not ‘TextIOWrapper’
• How to Solve Python AttributeError: ‘_io.TextIOWrapper’ object has no attribute ‘split’

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