Python - Using .readlines() with .rstrip() and then store all words into a list

Question

I want to be able to strip the \n character ( .rstrip('\n') ) from a text file (dictionary.txt) that contains 120,000+ words. then counts each line and returns the amount of words in the txt file (each word is on its own line). then finally want all the words to be stored into a list.

at the moment, the code below returns the amount of lines but doesn't strip the \n character so it can be stored into the list.

 def lines_count():
        with open('dictionary.txt') as file:
            print (len(file.readlines()))

Possible duplicate of [How do I read a file line-by-line into a list?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3277503/how-do-i-read-a-file-line-by-line-into-a-list) — Aprillion, May 13 '17 at 08:33
You may want to use `str.splitlines()`, which in this case you can read the file as string using `file.read()` then use `splitlines()` over the whole string. — Mazdak, May 13 '17 at 08:34
See [stackoverflow.com/questions/13259288/returning-a-list-of-words-after-reading-a-file-in-python](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13259288/returning-a-list-of-words-after-reading-a-file-in-python) — Irfan434, May 13 '17 at 08:34

Mazdak · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-16T15:11:53.887

If you want the list of lines without the trailing new-line character you can use str.splitlines() method, which in this case you can read the file as string using file_obj.read() then use splitlines() over the whole string. Although, there is no need for such thing when the open function is already returned a generator from your lines (you can simply strip the trailing new-line while processing the lines) or just call the str.strip() with a map to create an iterator of striped lines:

with open('dictionary.txt'):
    striped_lines = map(str.strip, f)

But if you just want to count the words as a pythonic way you can use a generator expression within sum function like following:

with open('dictionary.txt') as f:
    word_count = sum(len(line.split()) for line in f)

Note that there is no need to strip the new lines while you're splitting the line.

e.g.

In [14]: 'sd f\n'.split()
Out[14]: ['sd', 'f']

But if you still want all the words in a list you can use a list comprehension instead of a generator expression:

with open('dictionary.txt') as f:
    all_words = [word for line in f for word in line.split()]
    word_count = len(all_words)

How can i go about accessing that "all_words" list outside of the function? — MLJezus, May 13 '17 at 09:14
@Tyson Just return it inside the function and after calling the function assign the result to a new variable. I hardly recommend your to read some basic tutorials before asking questions. — Mazdak, May 13 '17 at 10:05

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 13 '17 at 08:38

if you want to return a list of lines without \n and then print the length of this list:

def line_list(fname):
    with open(fname) as file:
        return file.read().splitlines()

word_list = line_list('dictionary.txt')  # 1 word per line
print(len(word_list))

Python - Using .readlines() with .rstrip() and then store all words into a list

2 Answers2