how to loop through multiple files in python?

Question

the below code is to iterate through multiple files:

file_in = list() 
filenames = ['C:\\textfile1.txt', 'C:\\textfile2.txt'] 
x = 0 
for i in filenames:
    file_in[x] = open(i,'r') 
    x += 1

but it did not work, it gave the following error message:

IndexError: list assignment index out of range.

Any idea to solve it ,thanks you

Does this answer your question? [Why does this iterative list-growing code give IndexError: list assignment index out of range?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5653533/why-does-this-iterative-list-growing-code-give-indexerror-list-assignment-index) — dibery, Jan 24 '20 at 03:42

Tomerikoo · Answer 1 · 2020-01-24T03:02:01.013

That is because the list is empty so you can't assign to specific indexes. You should do:

file_in = list() 
filenames = ['C:\\textfile1.txt', 'C:\\textfile2.txt'] 

for i in filenames:
    file_in.append(open(i,'r'))

Or better yet:

filenames = ['C:\\textfile1.txt', 'C:\\textfile2.txt'] 

file_in = [open(i,'r') for i in filenames]

But it would be far better to use with to open the files:

filenames = ['C:\\textfile1.txt', 'C:\\textfile2.txt'] 
for file in filenames:
    with open(file) as f:
        # do something with the file

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 24 '20 at 08:46

0

Check this,

with open("file1.txt") as file1, open("file2.txt") as file2: 
    for x, y in zip(file1, sys_file2):
        x = x.strip() 
        y = y.strip()

This is generally how I do.

answered Jan 24 '20 at 08:46

Saurav Rai

2 Answers2