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How to read specific lines from a file by line number in Python

In Python, you can read specific lines from a file by line number using a context manager and the enumerate() function. Here's an example that demonstrates how to read lines 2, 4, and 7 from a file named "example.txt":

def read_specific_lines(filename, line_numbers):
    lines_to_read = set(line_numbers)  # Convert to a set for faster look-up
    lines = []

    with open(filename, 'r') as file:
        for i, line in enumerate(file, start=1):
            if i in lines_to_read:
                lines.append(line.strip())  # Remove leading/trailing whitespaces, including newlines
                lines_to_read.remove(i)  # Remove the line number from the set
                if not lines_to_read:
                    break  # Exit the loop if all desired lines have been read

    return lines

# Example usage
filename = "example.txt"
line_numbers = [2, 4, 7]
specific_lines = read_specific_lines(filename, line_numbers)
print(specific_lines)

In this example, the read_specific_lines function takes a filename and a list of line numbers as arguments. It reads the specified lines from the file and returns them as a list of strings. The enumerate() function is used to track the current line number while reading the file, and the start=1 parameter ensures that line numbering starts at 1.

  1. Accessing lines by line number in Python file:

    • Description: Demonstrates how to access specific lines in a file by line number.
    • Code:
      line_number = 3
      with open('sample.txt', 'r') as file:
          lines = file.readlines()
          if 1 <= line_number <= len(lines):
              specific_line = lines[line_number - 1]
              print(specific_line)
      
  2. How to read line by line from a file in Python:

    • Description: Reading a file line by line using a loop.
    • Code:
      with open('sample.txt', 'r') as file:
          for line in file:
              print(line.strip())
      
  3. Python read specific line number from a text file:

    • Description: Reading a specific line number from a text file.
    • Code:
      line_number = 2
      with open('sample.txt', 'r') as file:
          specific_line = next(islice(file, line_number - 1, line_number), None)
          if specific_line:
              print(specific_line.strip())
      
  4. Read Nth line from a file in Python:

    • Description: Reading the Nth line from a file using islice.
    • Code:
      from itertools import islice
      
      line_number = 5
      with open('sample.txt', 'r') as file:
          nth_line = next(islice(file, line_number - 1, line_number), None)
          if nth_line:
              print(nth_line.strip())
      
  5. Extracting lines by line number in Python:

    • Description: Extracting lines by line number using list comprehension.
    • Code:
      line_numbers = [2, 4, 6]
      with open('sample.txt', 'r') as file:
          lines = [line.strip() for i, line in enumerate(file, start=1) if i in line_numbers]
          print(lines)
      
  6. Accessing specific lines from a file using line number in Python:

    • Description: Accessing specific lines from a file using a function.
    • Code:
      def get_lines_by_number(file_path, line_numbers):
          with open(file_path, 'r') as file:
              lines = [line.strip() for i, line in enumerate(file, start=1) if i in line_numbers]
          return lines
      
      line_numbers = [2, 4, 6]
      result = get_lines_by_number('sample.txt', line_numbers)
      print(result)
      
  7. Read lines by line number with seek() in Python:

    • Description: Reading lines by seeking to specific positions in a file.
    • Code:
      line_number = 3
      with open('sample.txt', 'r') as file:
          file.seek(0)
          specific_line = file.readline()  # Read the first line
          for _ in range(line_number - 1):
              file.readline()  # Move to the desired line
          specific_line = file.readline()
          print(specific_line.strip())
      
  8. Python read specific line from a large file efficiently:

    • Description: Efficiently reading a specific line from a large file using islice.
    • Code:
      from itertools import islice
      
      line_number = 500
      with open('large_file.txt', 'r') as file:
          specific_line = next(islice(file, line_number - 1, line_number), None)
          if specific_line:
              print(specific_line.strip())
      
  9. Using readline() and line number to read specific lines in Python:

    • Description: Using readline() and line number to read specific lines.
    • Code:
      line_number = 3
      with open('sample.txt', 'r') as file:
          for _ in range(line_number - 1):
              file.readline()
          specific_line = file.readline()
          print(specific_line.strip())
      
  10. Read specific line from a text file using linecache in Python:

    • Description: Reading a specific line from a text file using the linecache module.
    • Code:
      import linecache
      
      line_number = 3
      specific_line = linecache.getline('sample.txt', line_number)
      print(specific_line.strip())
      
  11. Accessing lines by index in Python file:

    • Description: Accessing lines by index using a function.
    • Code:
      def get_line_by_index(file_path, line_index):
          with open(file_path, 'r') as file:
              lines = file.readlines()
              if 0 <= line_index < len(lines):
                  return lines[line_index].strip()
              return None
      
      line_index = 2
      result = get_line_by_index('sample.txt', line_index)
      print(result)
      
  12. Read specific lines from a file without loading the entire file in Python:

    • Description: Reading specific lines without loading the entire file into memory.
    • Code:
      line_numbers = [2, 4, 6]
      with open('sample.txt', 'r') as file:
          lines = [linecache.getline('sample.txt', i).strip() for i in line_numbers]
          print(lines)
      
  13. How to extract specific lines using line number in Python:

    • Description: Extracting specific lines using a list comprehension.
    • Code:
      line_numbers = [2, 4, 6]
      with open('sample.txt', 'r') as file:
          lines = [line.strip() for i, line in enumerate(file, start=1) if i in line_numbers]
          print(lines)
      
  14. Read lines by line number with enumerate() in Python:

    • Description: Reading lines by line number using enumerate().
    • Code:
      line_numbers = [2, 4, 6]
      with open('sample.txt', 'r') as file:
          lines = [line.strip() for i, line in enumerate(file, start=1) if i in line_numbers]
          print(lines)
      
  15. Python file input/output for reading specific lines:

    • Description: Reading specific lines from a file using file I/O operations.
    • Code:
      line_numbers = [2, 4, 6]
      lines = []
      
      with open('sample.txt', 'r') as file:
          for i, line in enumerate(file, start=1):
              if i in line_numbers:
                  lines.append(line.strip())
      
      print(lines)
      
  16. Efficiently read specific lines from a large file in Python:

    • Description: Efficiently reading specific lines from a large file.
    • Code:
      line_numbers = [500, 1000, 1500]
      with open('large_file.txt', 'r') as file:
          lines = [linecache.getline('large_file.txt', i).strip() for i in line_numbers]
          print(lines)
      
  17. Accessing lines by index with islice() in Python:

    • Description: Accessing lines by index using islice for efficient slicing.
    • Code:
      from itertools import islice
      
      line_indices = [1, 3, 5]
      with open('sample.txt', 'r') as file:
          lines = list(islice(file, max(line_indices)))
          specific_lines = [line.strip() for i, line in enumerate(lines, start=1) if i in line_indices]
          print(specific_lines)
      
  18. Read specific lines from a file with open() and readlines() in Python:

    • Description: Reading specific lines from a file using open() and readlines().
    • Code:
      line_numbers = [2, 4, 6]
      with open('sample.txt', 'r') as file:
          lines = file.readlines()
          specific_lines = [lines[i - 1].strip() for i in line_numbers]
          print(specific_lines)
      
  19. Extracting lines using list comprehension and line number in Python:

    • Description: Extracting lines using list comprehension and line number.
    • Code:
      line_numbers = [2, 4, 6]
      with open('sample.txt', 'r') as file:
          lines = [line.strip() for i, line in enumerate(file, start=1) if i in line_numbers]
          print(lines)