How does the 'with' statement help you manage resources safely in Python?

Context managers in Python provide a clean way to manage resources that need setup and cleanup, such as file handles, database connections, or locks. The 'with' statement ensures cleanup happens even if exceptions occur.

The most common example is file handling: with open('file.txt') as f: content = f.read(). The file is automatically closed when the block exits, whether normally or due to an exception.

Context managers implement __enter__() and __exit__() methods. __enter__ runs when entering the with block and can return a value (assigned to the variable after 'as'). __exit__ runs when exiting, receiving exception info if one occurred, and handles cleanup.

The @contextmanager decorator from contextlib provides an easier way to create context managers using generator syntax: @contextmanager def managed_resource(): resource = acquire() try: yield resource finally: release(resource)

Common use cases include: file operations (auto-close), database transactions (auto-commit/rollback), locks (auto-release), temporary state changes (auto-restore), timing blocks (auto-log duration), and managing any resource with setup/teardown needs.

Advanced features: __exit__ can suppress exceptions by returning True. Context managers can be nested or combined with contextlib.ExitStack for dynamic management. Async context managers (async with) use __aenter__ and __aexit__ for async resources.

Understanding context managers is essential for writing robust Python code that properly manages resources and handles errors gracefully.