How to edit and save text files (.py) in Google Colab?

I cloned a github repo using !git clone https://github.com/llSourcell/Pokemon_GAN.git. I wanted to modify a .py file inside Colab. So i used %load filename.py as suggested here (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21034373/how-to-load-edit-run-save-text-files-py-into-an-ipython-notebook-cell). But whenever i run this command, i get disconnected after some time. I was wondering if there is some other way to edit .py file without undergoing the hassle of downloading it to pc,editing and then re uploading it. Thanks in advance.

In the early days of Colab you could have used Ipython magic commands. Use below command

%pycat code.py

A pop up will appear displaying the code. You can copy it and edit it locally.
Remove the file using below command

!rm code.py

Copy the edited code to a cell in notebook and add below command at the top of the cell

%%writefile code.py

Run the cell. A file will be created with the contents present in the cell.

Updates: Now there are lot more easy and convenient options.

1. In the files section, there is an option to upload files or you can double click on the file, make changes and ctrl+s to save those changes.
2. You can also use https://github.com/abhishekkrthakur/colabcode to edit using visual studio code server.

Colab includes a text editor you can use to create, open, and delete .py files directly.

All is done in the Files view (see below).

• To create or delete a file, right click and choose "New file" or "Delete file".
• To edit a file, double click on it. It appears on the right portion of your screen. Make any changes you wish. Changes are saved automatically.

Unfortunately, it seems, colab do not support %load line magic (yet), and yet, you can see the file content using !cat your_file.py and then manually, copy the output contents, write them to a new cell and write %%writefile your_new_file_name.py at the top of the new cell to save this back to the instance. Note that, this will not be saved to your google drive yet.

Example:
!ls
output: colabData/

%%writefile something.py
print("everything's fine.")

!ls
output: colabData/ something.py

%run something.py
output: everything's fine.

you can edit it like this:

1. click on the triple bar (≡ on the left side of your windows)
2. click on files (the folder icon on the left)
3. click on Mount Drive and mount your drive
4. find your .py file and double click on it
5. edit it
6. press ctrl+s to save

edit:
these steps were after cloning your code into your drive
you should first mount your drive and clone your repo into your drive

I found it easier to edit the file locally.

1. You can download it from the left panel.
2. Right click on any file and download it.
3. Next, edit the file.
4. Next, upload the file.
5. use mv to move the file to the right location.

Not a perfect solution but can be useful for someone.

You can use !cat file_name.py to access file_name.py contents, copy the contents in the next cell and now you can run it or edit it.

Solution:

p = """
Yadda yadda
whatever you want just don't use triple quotes.
"""

c = """text_file = open("text.text", "w+");text_file.write(p);text_file.close()""" 

exec(c)

There is an app called Python Compiler Editor that you can connect to your Google Drive account, edit files and save them back.

The easiest way is:

1- Go to where you want the file to be with:

%cd WhereYouWantItToBe

2- Then write using:

%%writefile NameOfFile.txt
Hey there here is the start of the text
and also here
here is the end

3- Now run this cell and the file is going to be saved where you decided in step one.

Easiest solution just double click on the file you want to edit.The file opens and edit the file,save it and that's that.You are done

While I don't have a way of editing in the notebook, I will share my pipeline. Quite obvious really:

• fork the repo or create a new one(for a new project)
• create a branch just for uploading
• make changes and push
• evaluate
• make changes

Hope that helps.

With the addition of the terminal (the icon is in the lower left corner), now we can edit files through vim.

You can open the file using the file explorer programatically, like this:

from google.colab import files
files.view('your_file.py')

It will open your file in a separate panel and you can then edit and save it there directly.