Python .readline()

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Anonymous contributor
Published May 10, 2021Updated Aug 6, 2023
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The .readline() returns the first line of content from an open file.

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Syntax

file.readline()

Example

Use .readline() to read the first line of content from the gullivers_travels.txt file:

f = open("gullivers_travels.txt", "r", encoding='utf8')
f.readline()

Codebyte Example

The example below first creates a file called sample_text.txt and writes multiple lines of text to the file. It then calls .readline() twice to extract the two lines of content.

Code
Output
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