Reading a text file with new lines in html with python

Question

I have a text file that I want to read in my cgi script that will appear with a new line in between each line but it is just coming up as one huge wall of text. I cant figure out where to put '\n'. I have tried multiple locations but none work. Here is my code.

cgitb.enable()

form = cgi.FieldStorage()

keyword = form.getvalue('keyword')

f = open('%s.txt' %keyword, 'r')

print 'Content-type: text/html\r\n\r'
print '<html>'
print '<title> keyword + "tweets" </title>'
print f.readlines()
print '</html>'

f.close()

What happens when I pass keyword='/home/username/Desktop/file.txt? Or is this some internal script? — Blender
– Blender, Commented Dec 13, 2012 at 0:27

Amadan · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-13 00:27:58Z

3

By default, HTML treats newline characters as if they were whitespace. Convert those into <br> elements, or wrap your text in a <pre> element, or make sure white-space handling in CSS is appropriate.

Also, print f.readlines.join('\n') or print f.read() (or print f.readlines().join('<br>') if you go with the first choice); otherwise you should be getting the repr for the list.

answered Dec 13, 2012 at 0:27

Amadan

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2 Comments

Neemaximo Over a year ago

Sorry a little confused on what to do. Wrap what text in a <pre> element? Thanks for your answer btw

Amadan Over a year ago

@Shmoe: The text you are trying to display and have problems breaking with newlines.

holdenweb · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-13 05:28:40Z

0

If you really want the output to appear as plain text then it's much easier to simply set the value of the Content-Type header to "text/plain" instead of "text/html" and then most browsers will simply render your text without the need for interspersed HTML.

Please note that if you DO want to generate HTML you should incude an opening and closing <BODY> tag around the file contents (unless they happen to be present in the file).

edited Dec 13, 2012 at 5:28

answered Dec 13, 2012 at 0:39

holdenweb

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