Final answer:
To read the entire contents of a file into a single string in Python, use the 'read()' method after opening the file with the 'open()' function. Closing the file with 'close()' or using a 'with' statement for automatic closure is important.
Step-by-step explanation:
When reading a file using the file object, the best method for reading the entire file into a single string is to use the read() method. This method reads the entire contents of the file into a string, which you can then work with or manipulate in your program.
To do this, first, you need to open the file using the open() function. Once the file is open, you can call the read() method on the file object. Here's an example:
file = open('example.txt', 'r')
content = file.read()
file.close()
Don't forget to close the file after you're done to free up system resources. Alternatively, using a with statement is considered best practice as it automatically takes care of closing the file:with open('example.txt', 'r') as file:
content = file.read()