an ugly file-reading pattern

[Grzegorz Adam Hankiewicz]

On 2003-04-13, Istvan Albert <ialbert at mailblocks.com> wrote:
> if I choose to process the file line by line the "Learning Python"
> book advises me to use the following atrocity:
> 
> while 1:
> 	line = file.readline()
> 	if not line: break
> 
> Maybe I'm picky here but having to start an infinite loop then
> needing a conditional to break out of it is anything but an
> elegant pattern.

An idiom I prefer over that which works with every python version:

        line = file.readline()
        while line:
                do_stuff()
                line = file.readline()

But it also makes for an infinite loop if you happen to forget the
last line of the loop. Life is tough, you have to accept that or
move to newer python versions, as suggested.

-- 
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