python store data from file to variables

Question

I’m new to python and I’m taking my first steps to create some scripts. I want to access a file and store the items into a list and access each item as its own variable. The format of the file is .txt and it’s as such but not limited to 3 columns it could be 4 or more.

textData,1

textData,2

textData,3,moreData

textData,4,moreData4

textData,5

I know how to read and append to a list and access individual items starting with [0] but when I do that I get textData, 1 for [0] and I only want textData on its own and 1 on its own and so on as I loop through the file.

Below is my start of this:

file = open('fileName','r')

list = []

for items in file:

  list.append(items)

print(list[0])

Thank you for taking the time to read and provide direction.

as an aside, don't use list as a variable name, it shadows the built-in list — juanpa.arrivillaga
– juanpa.arrivillaga, Commented Oct 23, 2017 at 16:52

mrCarnivore · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-27 07:00:20Z

1

You need to split the lines:

my_list = []
for lines in file:
    my_list.append(lines.split(','))

print(my_list)

edited Oct 27, 2017 at 7:00

answered Oct 23, 2017 at 16:48

mrCarnivore

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2 Comments

s3bw Over a year ago

please don't use list as a variable.

mrCarnivore Over a year ago

You are right. I have just taken the authors variable names. I should have use more sensible ones and not one that shadows a datatype. I have corrected my code.

jmd_dk · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-23 16:52:23Z

0

When you loop over a file object, you get each line as a str. You can then get each word by using the .split method, which returns a list of strs. As your items are comma-separated, we split on ','. We do not want to append this list to the overall list, but rather add all elements of the list to the overall list, hence the +=:

file = open('fileName', 'r')
mylist = []
for line in file:
    words = line.split(',')
    mylist += words
print(mylist[0])

Also, avoid using list as a variable name, as this is the name of the builtin list function.

edited Oct 23, 2017 at 16:52

answered Oct 23, 2017 at 16:47

jmd_dk

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3 Comments

John Over a year ago

thank you for the quick reply but I still get textData,1 and I just want TextData for [0] and 1 for [1]

John Over a year ago

This worked and thank you. Now I need to study what you did and understand it.

jmd_dk Over a year ago

Indeed. If you are satisfied, please accept it as the answer. :-)

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