How do I add a linebreak at the end of a string in text files?

Question

I tried doing this:

with open("contactbook.txt","a") as f:
     f.write("hello\n")

But it gets printed as:

'hello\n'

My code to read the file:

with open("contactbook.txt","r") as f:
     lines = sorted(f.readlines())
     print(lines)

EDIT:

I tried to check the text file and there \n really was interpreted as a linebreak!

But in python's shell it's still showing as \n

What am I doing wrong? Is it because of how I print it?

Hey this is perfectly working and nothing wrong, delete file and run again.it may be due to append mode you may be seeing old data again. — Vignesh, Jul 26 '20 at 07:15
This code should run as desired. What OS are you working at? What IDE/editor are you using? — Albert Alberto, Jul 26 '20 at 07:18
@VigneshRajendran Hi! I already did, but it's still getting printed as \n :( — Rose, Jul 26 '20 at 07:20
Thank you for your help! I solved it hehe the problem was with the way I print it out, the code for the line break was correct just like you guys said :) — Rose, Jul 26 '20 at 07:52

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 26 '20 at 07:24

2

It's being written out fine.

The problem is that when you read the file back in, you print out the whole lines list in a single print(lines) statement; this will give you a form suitable for debugging, not really for display to the end-user, including writing out control characters as \n and so on.

If you check the file in any other way, you'll be able to confirm that it has the content that you want.

answered Jul 26 '20 at 07:24

Jiří Baum

6,697
2
17
17

Ohhh so you mean I should use loops to print it? – Rose Jul 26 '20 at 07:29
Yeah. Or whatever other processing you need to do with it. – Jiří Baum Jul 26 '20 at 08:07

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 26 '20 at 07:50

0

Just in case there are other people like me who gets the same problem...

The problem with my code before is the way I print it out so by changing how I read/print it to:

with open('contactbook.txt', 'r') as f:
     for lines in sorted(f):
          print(lines, end='')

It now works!

sabik's answer helped me realized this! :)

answered Jul 26 '20 at 07:50

Rose

127
7

1

You could also use `print(''.join(lines))` without the loop. – Jiří Baum Jul 26 '20 at 08:08

How do I add a linebreak at the end of a string in text files?

2 Answers2