Extract nth line of text from strings in list- Python

Question

I have a list that consists of 149 text strings. From each string, I would like to extract the 2nd and 7th lines of text. I'd like the results of each line to be put in a separate list.

I've tried (just for one line):

text = []  
for string in list:
  x = string.splitlines()[2]
  text.append(x)

But I get the message "IndexError: list index out of range". I thought maybe I needed to do:

text = []  
for string in list:
  x = [string].splitlines()[2]
  text.append(x)

But that gave me the message "AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'splitlines'"

I'm using Python 3.6. Any ideas? Thanks for your help!

You definitely didn't need to put it in brackets, that makes it a list. string.splitlines was correct, you just don't have 3 lines in that specific entry, apparently. (Without knowing what your data looks like, I can't say much more) — Dimitris Fasarakis Hilliard
– Dimitris Fasarakis Hilliard, Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 15:42
What is printed if you do print(len(string.splitlines())) right before assigning x in your first attempt? — Vladimir Shevyakov
– Vladimir Shevyakov, Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 16:12
Also, to extract the second line you should use string.splitlines()[1] - as 0 is the first element, 1 is the second and so on. — Vladimir Shevyakov
– Vladimir Shevyakov, Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 16:13
@JimFasarakisHilliard Thank you for the note about brackets. I didn't know that — natnay
– natnay, Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 16:52

Ben G. · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-12 16:36:57Z

2

string.splitlines is the correct function to split the lines of each string, and if it gives an IndexError for index 2 (note: this is the 3rd line) then that means that there are fewer than three lines. This is probably the code you're looking for:

line2_results = []
line7_results = []
for str in list:
    lines = str.splitlines()
    if len(lines) >= 2:
        line2_results.append(lines[1])
        if len(lines) >= 7:
            line7_results.append(lines[6])

answered Jun 12, 2017 at 16:36

Ben G.

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1 Comment

natnay Over a year ago

Thank you for your help! Yes, there were blank strings in the input list and I see now that this was causing the error.

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