How to redirect sys.stdout from a file back to idle

CODE

import sys                          #1
idlestdout = sys.stdout             #2
outfile = open('outfile.txt','w')   #3
sys.stdout = outfile                #4
print 'hello world'                 #5
outfile.flush()                     #6
outfile.close()                     #7
sys.stdout = idlestdout             #8

How this works - Line by Line
Note that this code redirects the standard output from a file back to any IDE, not just idle.

import sys                          #1

This imports the sys module which comes standard

idlestdout = sys.stdout             #2

This defines the variable idlestdout as the current output. You need to do this so that Python later knows what to redirect its output back to.

outfile = open('outfile.txt','w')   #3

This defines the variable outfile as a file called "outfile.txt" that we will be writing to.

sys.stdout = outfile                #4

This redirects the standard output to the file defined in line #3

print 'hello world'                 #5

This prints "hello world" to the standard output memory, or in this case, the outfile

outfile.flush()                     #6

This writes all of the pending text (line #5) to the outfile

outfile.close()                     #7

This closes the outfile file

sys.stdout = idlestdout             #8

This redirects the sys.stdout back to the IDE.