How to Read a File in Python Without Newlines?

How to Read a File in Python Without Preserving Newlines

In Python, reading a file with open(filename, 'r').readlines() provides a list of strings with newline characters at the end. This behavior may be undesirable in some cases. This article explores several methods to read a file without the newlines.

Method 1: Using str.splitlines()

This method reads the entire file into a string and splits it into individual lines using the str.splitlines() function. The result is a list of strings without newlines:

temp = file.read().splitlines()

Method 2: Stripping Newlines Manually

If the list comprehension and slicing method is preferred, the following approach can be employed:

temp = [line[:-1] for line in file]

However, this solution assumes the file ends with a newline character. If not, the last line will lose its final character.

Method 3: Adding Newline to End of File

To avoid losing the last character, a newline can be added to the end of the file before reading:

with open(the_file, 'r+') as f:
    f.seek(-1, 2)
    if f.read(1) != '\n':
        f.write('\n')
        f.flush()
        f.seek(0)
    lines = [line[:-1] for line in f]

Method 4: Using rstrip()

This method provides an alternative to stripping the newlines manually:

[line.rstrip('\n') for line in file]

Method 5: Using Conditional Slicing

Although less readable, this method utilizes the boolean evaluation of the or operator:

[line[:-(line[-1] == '\n') or len(line)+1] for line in file]

Note: The readlines() method in Python maintains the newlines in the returned list of strings because readline() itself preserves them.

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