Parsing the text in a file

Question

I am trying print the contents of a text file using below code,the text file will only contain one line,my current output is as below which is a list with "\r\n" at the end,I want to the output to be as shown in "EXPECTED OUTPUT" ?

branch_textfile =  branch + '.txt'

with open(branch_textfile, 'r') as f: #open the file
    contents = f.readlines() #put the lines to a variable (list).
    #contents = contents.rstrip()
    print contents

CURRENT OUTPUT:-

['AU_TEST_PUBLIC_BRANCH.05.01.01.151.005\r\n']

EXPECTED OUTPUT:-

AU_TEST_PUBLIC_BRANCH.05.01.01.151.005

The culprit is readlines() - it's not the right method for the job here. — TigerhawkT3
– TigerhawkT3, Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 0:23

Joe T. Boka · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-09 00:14:07Z

1

>>> x = ['AU_TEST_PUBLIC_BRANCH.05.01.01.151.005\r\n']
>>> print x[0].rstrip()
AU_TEST_PUBLIC_BRANCH.05.01.01.151.005
>>>

answered Jul 9, 2015 at 0:14

Joe T. Boka

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wallyk · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-09 00:15:07Z

1

It does that because f.readlines() returns an array (or is it a list?) Either way, you can avoid the brackets with:

print contents[0]

This works but it only prints the first line of the file.

answered Jul 9, 2015 at 0:15

wallyk

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1 Comment

jaromey Over a year ago

A list would be the proper term for python.

TigerhawkT3 · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-09 00:17:23Z

1

Use contents = f.read().rstrip() instead of contents = f.readlines(). This will read the file into a single string and remove the trailing whitespace.

answered Jul 9, 2015 at 0:17

TigerhawkT3

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Comments

ricknroll · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-09 00:24:07Z

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why did you "#" the .rstrip() out? it is the right command!

you can also put that on the end of the statment like this:

with open('file','r') as f:
    data = f.read().strip()

answered Jul 9, 2015 at 0:24

ricknroll

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