Print to file in Python?

Question

I've looked at tutorials on how to print to a file in Python, but I'm still have a problem. When I do:

x = a_function_that_spits_out_a_table
print x

The table looks great and is formatted properly. But when I do:

f=open(myfile,"w")
print >> f, x

I get a file with one line of text, without any line breaks. How do I print to a file exactly as how it appears when I use the print command?

And what does print repr(x) look like? All print >> fobj does is write to a different file object instead of sys.stdout so the output is exactly the same for both methods. — Martijn Pieters
– Martijn Pieters, Commented May 20, 2014 at 17:53
Are you using correct line breaks? For example stdout will make a new line for \n (and most of text editors) but notepad.exe( windows) won't, it does just for "\r\n". — Adrian Toma
– Adrian Toma, Commented May 20, 2014 at 17:57
print repr(x) looks like one single line, with line breaks as \n included. When I write to the text file, I don't see the line breaks, I just see a space where line breaks should be, a la: "top of table bottomoftable". — user1566200
– user1566200, Commented May 20, 2014 at 18:05
See @at0ma comment. I most definitely bet on an end-of-line issue between terminal and windows notepad, or something nasty like that — Filipe Gonçalves
– Filipe Gonçalves, Commented May 20, 2014 at 18:20

score 2 · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-20 18:29:44Z

2

it would work:

print  >> f, "{line_content} \n".format(line_content=x)

format string method is easy to use.

See doc: format method

Note: Even though I've written new line character as "\n", Python may convert '\n' characters to a platform-specific representation on writing and back on reading. See here: python doc

edited May 20, 2014 at 18:29

answered May 20, 2014 at 18:02

user3657779

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3 Comments

user1566200 Over a year ago

Nevermind, does work when opened in Notepad++. Thanks!

Filipe Gonçalves Over a year ago

@user1566200 This is a line-ending issue. Windows' notepad breaks lines only with \r\n, and you're feeding it a file with \n only. Subtle!

user3657779 Over a year ago

@FilipeGonçalves Python may convert '\n' characters to a platform-specific representation on writing and back on reading. See here: python doc

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