Python .splitlines()

.splitlines() is a built-in string method in Python method in Python that splits a multi-line string into a list of lines. It recognizes different newline characters such as \n, \r, or \r\n and splits the string at those points. The method returns a list of strings, each corresponding to a line in the original multi-line string.

Syntax

string.splitlines(keepends=False)

Parameters:

• string: This is the string on which to apply the .splitlines() method.
• keepends (Optional): This is a Boolean parameter. If True, the line break characters are included in the resulting lines. If False (default), the line break characters are excluded.

Return value:

The .splitlines() method returns a list of strings, each corresponding to a line in the original multi-line string.

Example 1: Basic Usage of .splitlines()

In this example, .splitlines() is applied to a custom multi-line string with various line break characters (\n, \r\n, and \r):

custom_multi_line_string = "Line A\nLine B\r\nLine C\rLine D"

custom_lines = custom_multi_line_string.splitlines()

print(custom_lines)

for line in custom_lines:
  print(line)

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The output of this code is:

['Line A', 'Line B', 'Line C', 'Line D']
Line A
Line B
Line C
Line D

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Example 2: Working with File Input

This example demonstrates how .splitlines() helps when reading entire file content as a string and needing to process it line by line:

with open("example.txt", "r") as file:
  content = file.read()

lines = content.splitlines()

print(lines)

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The output of this code is (assuming file content is multi-line):

['This is line 1', 'This is line 2', 'This is line 3']

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Codebyte Example: Keeping Line Endings

In this codebyte example, .splitlines(keepends=True) is used to include the line break characters in the resulting lines:

multi_line_string = "This is line 1.\nThis is line 2.\nThis is line 3."

lines_with_breaks = multi_line_string.splitlines(keepends=True)

print(lines_with_breaks)

for line in lines_with_breaks:
  print(line)

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. How is .splitlines() different from .split('\n')?

.split('\n') only handles \n as a newline, while .splitlines() handles all common line breaks (\n, \r, \r\n). This makes it more robust for cross-platform text handling.

2. Can .splitlines() be used on an empty string?

Yes. In that case, .splitlines() returns an empty list:

print("".splitlines()) # Output: []

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3. What happens if there are trailing newlines while using .splitlines()?

Trailing newlines create extra empty strings only if keepends=True in .splitlines():

print("text\n".splitlines()) # Output: ['text']

print("text\n".splitlines(True)) # Output: ['text\n']

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