Python import list from text file as list

Question

[2, 'hello', 3, 'good'] - is stored in myfile.txt on one line


 with open(myfile,'r') as f:
        myList = f.readlines()

but when I try to retrieve the first index, so "2' by using myList[0], the first square brackets is retrieved.

How can I set the imported line into a list?

Because it comes as string when you read from file. You can do myList = eval(myList) — Sunnysinh Solanki
– Sunnysinh Solanki, Commented Feb 25, 2018 at 12:47

MrLokans · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-25 12:48:47Z

2

.readlines() method reads lines of text from file, separated with the new line character and returns a list, containing those lines, so that's not the case.

You could have read the contents of the file and eval it like this:

with open(myfile,'r') as f:
    my_list = eval(f.read())

Note, that the usage of eval is considered to be a really bad practice, as it allows to execute any python code written in the file.

answered Feb 25, 2018 at 12:48

MrLokans

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Rakesh · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-25 12:47:56Z

2

use the ast module to convert the string to a list object

Ex:

import ast
with open(myfile,'r') as f:
        data= f.read()
        myList = ast.literal_eval(data)

answered Feb 25, 2018 at 12:47

Rakesh

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Comments

Graipher · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-25 13:18:24Z

0

You can use the json module for this (since a list is a valid json object):

import json
with open(myfile) as f:
    myList = json.load(f)

answered Feb 25, 2018 at 13:18

Graipher

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Susmit · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-25 13:33:39Z

0

You could do: mylist = mylist[1:-1].split(",") [1:-1] gets rid of brackets

answered Feb 25, 2018 at 13:33

Susmit

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