Reading text files where last line has no EOL

[Steve Holden]

BlueBird wrote:
> I tried and failed to read text files where the last line does not
> contain proper EOL. For my tests, I use a file that I create with the
> equivalent of :
> 
> open('toto', 'w').write( '1234\n4567\n89AB' )
> 
> 
> My reading code looks like this :
> 
>        l = f.readline()
>         while len(l):
>             self.appendLine( l )
>             l = f.readline()
> 
> The last line is not returned (89AB) is never returned.
> 
> I tried with "for l in f" with similar results.
> 
> I read the doc :
> 
> In order to make a for loop the most efficient way of looping over the
> lines of a file (a very common operation), the next() method uses a
> hidden read-ahead buffer. As a consequence of using a read-ahead
> buffer, combining next() with other file methods (like readline())
> does not work right. However, using seek() to reposition the file to
> an absolute position will flush the read-ahead buffer. New in version
> 2.3.
> 
> I've tried to do a f.seek( f.tell() ) but that did not help.
> 
> So how am I supposed to fetch that last line ?
> 
What version of Python are you using, and on what platform? WJFFM on 
2.5.1/Cygwin:

 >>> open('toto', 'w').write( '1234\n4567\n89AB' )
 >>> for l in open('toto'):
...   print l
...
1234

4567

89AB
 >>>

You will observe that the last line is presented, but correctly does not 
include a trailing line feed.

regards
  Steve

-- 
Steve Holden        +1 571 484 6266   +1 800 494 3119
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Sorry, the dog ate my .sigline