Py Context Managers — Free Python Tutorial

TL;DR: Learn Py Context Managers in Python with a free, beginner-friendly tutorial, examples and practice for Indian students on Syllab.in.

Py Context Managers in Python

A context manager controls the setup and teardown of resources. The with statement automatically calls __enter__ when entering the block and __exit__ when leaving — even if an error occurs.

The most common use is file handling: with open("file.txt") as f: automatically closes the file when done, even if an exception happens.

You can create your own context managers using the contextlib.contextmanager decorator with a generator function, or by defining __enter__ and __exit__ methods in a class.

Context managers ensure resources (files, database connections, locks) are always properly cleaned up — no leaks, no forgotten close() calls.

# Using built-in context manager
with open("file.txt", "r") as f:
    content = f.read()

# Custom context manager with contextlib
from contextlib import contextmanager

@contextmanager
def my_context():
    # setup
    yield value
    # teardown

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