As of Python2.5, {{{StreamReader}}} wraps (contains) a stream.  It defines {{{read}}} and other respective methods to read the data from the stream and "decode" them.  The class exposes all other methods of the stream instance.

Pseudocode of the {{{codecs.StreamReader}}} definition:

{{{
#!python
class StreamReader(Codec):
    def __init__(self, stream):
        ....

    def read(self):
        return self.decode(stream.read())
}}}


The {{{decode}}} method normally converts values of type {{{str}}} to {{{unicode}}}.

Codec modules will attach the {{{decode}}} method to the class definition derived from {{{StreamReader}}} during the initialization.  An excerpt from {{{encodings.utf_8.StreamReader}}}:

{{{
#!python
class StreamReader(codecs.StreamReader):
    decode = codecs.utf_8_decode
}}}

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See also: StreamWriter, StreamReaderWriter, StreamRecoder.
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CategoryUnicode