How to Read Text File Into List in Python?

In this article, we are going to see how to read text files into lists in Python.

File for demonstration:

Example 1: Converting a text file into a list by splitting the text on the occurrence of ‘.’.

We open the file in reading mode, then read all the text using the read() and store it into a variable called data. after that we replace the end of the line(‘/n’) with ‘ ‘ and split the text further when ‘.’ is seen using the split() and replace() functions. 

read(): The read bytes are returned as a string. Reads n bytes, or the full file if no n is given.

Syntax: fileobject.read(size)

split(): The split() method creates a list from a string. The separator can be specified; the default separator is any whitespace.

Syntax: string.split(separator, maxsplit)

replace(): The replace() method substitutes one phrase for another.

Syntax: string.replace(previous_value, value_to_be_replaced_with, count)

Code:

Python3

# opening the file in read mode
my_file = open("file1.txt", "r")

# reading the file
data = my_file.read()

# replacing end of line('/n') with ' ' and
# splitting the text it further when '.' is seen.
data_into_list = data.replace('\n', ' ').split(".")

# printing the data
print(data_into_list)
my_file.close()

Output:

['Hello geeks Welcome to geeksforgeeks']

Example 2:  Converting a text file into a list by splitting the text on the occurrence of newline (‘\n’ )

The same process as before but we don’t replace any string here.

Python3

# opening the file in read mode
my_file = open("file1.txt", "r")

# reading the file
data = my_file.read()

# replacing end splitting the text
# when newline ('\n') is seen.
data_into_list = data.split("\n")
print(data_into_list)
my_file.close()

Output:

['Hello geeks', 'Welcome to geeksforgeeks']