How to read a text file into a list or an array with Python

One way to read a text file into a list or an array with Python is to use the splitlines() method. Here is a code snippet that demonstrates how to do this:

Read a text file into a list or an array in Python

with open('file.txt', 'r') as file:
    data = file.read().splitlines()

In the above code snippet, file.txt is the name of the text file that you want to read, and 'r' is the mode in which the file is opened ('r' stands for "read"). The with open statement is used to open the file, and the as file part is used to give the file a more convenient name to work with. For robustness, it is recommended to specify the file encoding, e.g., encoding='utf-8'.

The read() method reads the entire contents of the file, and the splitlines() method is used to split the contents of the file into a list of strings, one string for each line of the file.

Alternatively, you can use the readlines() method to achieve a similar result. Here is the code snippet:

Read a text file into a list or an array in Python using the readlines method

with open('file.txt', 'r') as file:
    data = file.readlines()

The readlines() method reads the entire contents of the file and returns a list where each element is a line in the file. Note that unlike splitlines(), readlines() retains the newline characters (\n) at the end of each string.