Unwanted '\n' removed when writing to txt line

Question

So I have this text file:

Hoi

Total: 5700
-
-

And this code to change the Total: value:

with open("TEST.txt") as f:
    lines = f.readlines()
string = (lines[2])
stringNub = string.replace("Total: ","")

num = 300
sum = int(stringNub) + int(num)

with open('TEST.txt','r') as file:
    filedata = file.read()
    filedata = filedata.replace(stringNub, str(sum))
with open('TEST.txt','w') as file:
    file.write(filedata)

This works but the result is minus one Enter '\n'.

Hoi

Total: 6000-
-

How do I keep it from removing this enter ?

This would be really obvious if you printed out what `stringNub` is. :) Try `print(repr(stringNub))`. — Mateen Ulhaq, Mar 21 '20 at 11:43
Does this answer your question? [How to read a file without newlines?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12330522/how-to-read-a-file-without-newlines) — Mateen Ulhaq, Mar 21 '20 at 11:43

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 21 '20 at 11:45

1

It's because when you convert stringNub into an int, the \n gets removed, the solution is simply add \n again when you want to write. Change the following line:

filedata = filedata.replace(stringNub, str(sum))

to this:

filedata = filedata.replace(stringNub, str(sum) + '\n')

answered Mar 21 '20 at 11:45

Damzaky

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2
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Ah I figured it would be something like that, it did the trick alright. Thank you. – myosis Mar 21 '20 at 13:56

kederrac · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-21T13:54:28.987

1

at this line filedata = filedata.replace(stringNub, str(sum)) your variable stringNub containes the full line with the \n at the end, by replacing with str(sum) you are also removing the \n, to fix you could do :

with open('TEST.txt','r') as file:
    filedata = file.read()
    filedata = filedata.replace(stringNub, str(sum) + '\n')

or you could difine stringNub without \n using str.strip and keep the rest of your code without changes:

stringNub = string.strip().replace("Total: ","")

edited Mar 21 '20 at 13:54

answered Mar 21 '20 at 11:48

kederrac

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Thank you for the explanation, and solutions :) I would like to use the strip(), but I'm getting: ‘no attribute 'srip'. – myosis Mar 21 '20 at 13:53
@myosis it is actually 'strip', I have updated my answer – kederrac Mar 21 '20 at 13:55

Unwanted '\n' removed when writing to txt line

2 Answers2