rashmi agar
61 posts
Mar 17, 2025
9:07 PM
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Python provides several ways to manipulate strings, and one of the useful methods is splitlines python . This method is commonly used when dealing with multiline strings, as it efficiently splits text into a list of lines.
What is splitlines()?
The splitlines() method in Python is a built-in string function that splits a string into a list based on line breaks. It is particularly useful when handling large text files, multiline strings, or processing user inputs that span multiple lines.
Syntax:
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str.splitlines(keepends=False)
keepends: A boolean parameter (default is False). If True, it retains the line break characters at the end of each line.
Example Usage
Basic Usage (Default keepends=False)
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text = "Hello\nWorld\nPython is great!"
lines = text.splitlines()
print(lines)
Output:
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['Hello', 'World', 'Python is great!']
Here, splitlines() splits the string wherever it encounters \n (newline) and returns a list of separate lines.
Using keepends=True
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text = "Hello\nWorld\nPython is great!"
lines = text.splitlines(keepends=True)
print(lines)
Output:
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['Hello\n', 'World\n', 'Python is great!']
When keepends=True, the newline characters (\n) are preserved at the end of each line.
Differences Between split() and splitlines()
Some might confuse splitlines() with split(). However, they serve different purposes:
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text = "Hello\nWorld\nPython"
print(text.split("\n")) # Uses explicit separator
print(text.splitlines()) # Automatically splits at line breaks
Output:
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['Hello', 'World', 'Python']
['Hello', 'World', 'Python']
While they seem similar in this example, splitlines() is more flexible since it can recognize various newline characters (\n, \r, \r\n) without needing an explicit separator.
Use Cases of splitlines()
Reading files line by line
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with open("example.txt", "r") as file:
content = file.read()
lines = content.splitlines()
print(lines)
This approach is helpful for parsing large text files.
Processing multiline user input
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user_input = """Line 1
Line 2
Line 3"""
print(user_input.splitlines())
Useful when handling form submissions or logs.
Conclusion
The splitlines() method is a simple yet powerful tool for handling multiline strings. It works seamlessly across different newline characters, making it a preferred choice when dealing with text data. Whether you are processing files, working with logs, or handling user inputs, understanding splitlines() can significantly improve your Python string manipulations.
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