Why truncate when we open a file in 'w' mode in python
<p>I am going through Zed Shaw's Python Book. I am currently working on the opening and reading files chapters. I am wondering why we need to do a truncate, when we are already opening the file in a 'w' mode?</p>

<pre><code>print "Opening the file..."
target = open(filename, 'w')

print "Truncating the file. Goodbye!"
target.truncate()
</code></pre>
