config_file_read.py

from __future__ import print_function # only for module main() test function
import csv
import sys
PY3 = sys.version_info[0] > 2

def read_properties(filename, delimiter=':'):
    ''' Reads a given properties file with each line of the format key=value.
        Returns a dictionary containing the pairs.
            filename -- the name of the file to be read
    '''
    open_kwargs = dict(mode='r', newline='') if PY3 else dict(mode='rb')
    with open(filename, **open_kwargs) as csvfile:
        reader = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=delimiter, escapechar='\\',
                            quoting=csv.QUOTE_NONE)
        return {row[0]: row[1] for row in reader}

def write_properties(filename, dictionary, delimiter=':'):
    ''' Writes the provided dictionary in key sorted order to a properties
        file with each line of the format key<delimiter>value
            filename -- the name of the file to be written
            dictionary -- a dictionary containing the key/value pairs.
    '''
    open_kwargs = dict(mode='w', newline='') if PY3 else dict(mode='wb')
    with open(filename, **open_kwargs) as csvfile:
        writer = csv.writer(csvfile, delimiter=delimiter, escapechar='\\',
                            quoting=csv.QUOTE_NONE)
        writer.writerows(sorted(dictionary.items()))

def main():
    data = {
        'Answer': '6*7=42',
        'Knights': 'Ni!',
        'Spam': 'Eggs',
    }

    filename='test.properties'
    write_properties(filename, data)
    newdata = read_properties(filename)

    print('Read in: ')
    print(newdata)
    print()

    with open(filename, 'rb') as propfile:
        contents = propfile.read()
    print('File contents: (%d bytes)' % len(contents))
    print(contents)

    print(['Failure!', 'Success!'][data == newdata])

if __name__ == '__main__':
     main()