Search a text file and print related lines in Python?

Question

How do I search a text file for a key-phrase or keyword and then print the line that key-phrase or keyword is in?

Asked By: Noah R

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Answer 1

searchfile = open("file.txt", "r")
for line in searchfile:
    if "searchphrase" in line: print line
searchfile.close()

To print out multiple lines (in a simple way)

f = open("file.txt", "r")
searchlines = f.readlines()
f.close()
for i, line in enumerate(searchlines):
    if "searchphrase" in line: 
        for l in searchlines[i:i+3]: print l,
        print

The comma in print l, prevents extra spaces from appearing in the output; the trailing print statement demarcates results from different lines.

Or better yet (stealing back from Mark Ransom):

with open("file.txt", "r") as f:
    searchlines = f.readlines()
for i, line in enumerate(searchlines):
    if "searchphrase" in line: 
        for l in searchlines[i:i+3]: print l,
        print

Answered By: senderle

Answer 2

with open('file.txt', 'r') as searchfile:
    for line in searchfile:
        if 'searchphrase' in line:
            print line

With apologies to senderle who I blatantly copied.

Answered By: Mark Ransom

Answer 3

Note the potential for an out-of-range index with “i+3”. You could do something like:

with open("file.txt", "r") as f:
    searchlines = f.readlines()
j=len(searchlines)-1
for i, line in enumerate(searchlines):
    if "searchphrase" in line: 
        k=min(i+3,j)
        for l in searchlines[i:k]: print l,
        print

Edit: maybe not necessary. I just tested some examples. x[y] will give errors if y is out of range, but x[y:z] doesn’t seem to give errors for out of range values of y and z.

Answered By: bill

Search a text file and print related lines in Python?

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