Skipping Blank lines in read file python

Question

Im working on a very long project, i have everything done with it, but in the file he wants us to read at the bottom there are empty spaces, legit just blank spaces that we aren't allowed to delete, to work on the project i deleted them because i have no idea how to get around it, so my current open/read looks like this

      file = open("C:\\Users\\bh1337\\Documents\\2015HomicideLog_FINAL.txt" , "r")
 lines=file.readlines()[1:]
 file.close()

What do i need to add to this to ignore blank lines? or to stop when it gets to a blank line?

use for line in file: if not line.strip(): print("it is empty line") — furas
– furas, Commented Nov 17, 2016 at 6:21

Fejs · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-17 06:21:35Z

9

You can check if they are empty:

file = open('filename')
lines = [line for line in file.readlines() if line.strip()]
file.close()

answered Nov 17, 2016 at 6:21

Fejs

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backtrack · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-17 06:21:38Z

6

for line in file:
  if not line.strip():
    ... do something

Follwoing will be best for readinf files

with open("fname.txt") as file:
    for line in file:
      if not line.strip():
        ... do something

With open will takecare of file close.

If you want to ignore lines with only whitespace

answered Nov 17, 2016 at 6:21

backtrack

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5 Comments

Brayden Hark Over a year ago

When you say ...do something, can i just put the file.close there?

user3556757 Over a year ago

@BraydenHark the with clause eliminates the need for explicit file.close

Brayden Hark Over a year ago

So what would i put in for the do something..? or could i just leave it blank there? Sorry im extremely new to coding, and i'm not sure its for me =/

Brayden Hark Over a year ago

using this method I'm getting an error " List index out of range" heres the code

with open("C:\\Users\\Brayd\OneDrive\\Documents\\2015HomicideLog_FINAL.txt") as file:     for line in file:         lines=file.readlines()[1:]     if not line.strip():         lines=file.readlines()[1:]

Ive tried replacing the bottom command with file.close() and print("it is empty line") and nothing seems to be working

Brayden Hark Over a year ago

Runs perfectly fine if i delete the spaces @ the bottom of the .txt file, but the file my Prof wants us to read has whitespaces at the bottom, any idea? @backtrack

Gergely M · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-10 23:30:31Z

4

Here's a very simple way to skip the empty lines:

with open(file) as f_in: 
    lines = list(line for line in (l.strip() for l in f_in) if line)

edited Mar 10, 2019 at 23:30

Gergely M

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answered Nov 17, 2016 at 6:21

Taufiq Rahman

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Comments

eshb · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-17 06:20:44Z

2

One way is to use the lines list and remove all the elements e such that e.strip() is empty. This way, you can delete all lines with just whitespaces.
Other way is to use f.readline instead of f.readlines() which will read the file line by line. First, initialize an empty list. If the present read-in line, after stripping, is empty, ignore that line and continue to read the next line. Else add the read-in line to the list.

Hope this helps!

answered Nov 17, 2016 at 6:20

eshb

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