How to split file into number of output files in Python 3?

Question

I have a problem statement:

splitfile(filename,numberoffiles)

A file of 13 lines, split in 3, would have output files of length 4, 4 and 5 if they cannot be evenly distributed. ( Can not have a difference greater than 1 line if they cant be evenly distributed)

I started learning python and I have to create a function that will split a file into smaller ones as specified in the parameters.

The thing I am having trouble with is I do not know how to approach this scenario due to it being based off of number of files and the concept of having a difference greater than 1 being non permissible.

Hello Reks, welcome to Stack Overflow. Please consider taking the time to read the tour page and How to Ask -- as it stands your question is simply a problem statement and doesn't show what specific problem you are facing. Asking SO to write all your code is not appropriate as a question. Show what you've tried to address your problem, and describe clearly the specific issue you face. — TZHX
– TZHX, Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 11:32
Check out os.stat() for file size and file.readlines([sizehint]). These are for reading various info meant for the program. I think you know how to do the writing part — therealprashant
– therealprashant, Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 11:37
The problem statement has some clumsy wording. The last part in brackets is only saying that if you split your total number of lines (from the file) into the x number of groups. If the difference in size between any of the groups is more than 1, then your lines have not been equally divided. — Paul Rooney
– Paul Rooney, Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 11:57

Gord Thompson · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-01 12:17:35Z

The essence of the question (as I understand it) is how to determine the number of lines that each output file will contain. This is what I came up with for Python 3.4.3:

def get_line_counts(total_lines, number_of_files):
    base_size = total_lines // number_of_files
    line_count_list = [base_size for i in range(number_of_files)]
    files_with_an_extra_line = total_lines % number_of_files
    for i in range(files_with_an_extra_line):
        line_count_list[len(line_count_list) - (i + 1)] += 1
    return line_count_list


for i, n in enumerate(get_line_counts(13, 3)):
    print("file {0} will contain {1} line(s)".format(i, n))

resulting in

file 0 will contain 4 line(s)
file 1 will contain 4 line(s)
file 2 will contain 5 line(s)

The rest of the code would just be basic file I/O: read n lines from an input text file and write them to an output text file.

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