Benefits of compressing files and how to read zip files in Python

What are the benefits of compressing files and how can you read ZIP files in Python?

Benefits of Compressing Files

1. Reduces File Size:
   • Compressed files take up less disk space.
   • Useful when storing large datasets or logs.
2. Faster Transfers:
   • Smaller size means faster uploads/downloads.
   • Ideal for sending files over email or networks.
3. Easy File Grouping:
   • Combines multiple files into a single archive (e.g., .zip).
   • Easier to manage and share.
4. Efficient Backup:
   • Regular backups are faster and smaller when compressed.

Reading ZIP Files in Python

Python’s built-in zipfile module allows reading from ZIP archives.

Steps to read and extract files:

import zipfile

# Open the zip file in read mode
with zipfile.ZipFile('example.zip') as zip_ref:
    # Extract all contents to a folder
    zip_ref.extractall('destination_folder')

Other useful functions:

# List of files inside the ZIP
zip_ref.namelist()

# Extract a specific file
zip_ref.extract('file.txt')

This makes it easy to automate the handling of compressed data in Python scripts.