Checking for end of a file

[Bjorn Pettersen]

CB wrote:
> 
> If I'm iterating through a text file, reading one line at a time within a
> while statement, how do I check for the end of file.  I tried while
> filename.eof and filename.eof() but to no avail?
> 
> Colin

The two standard idioms are:

  f = open(...)
  for line in f.readlines():
    <do something with line>

and

  while 1:
    line = f.readline()
    if not line: break
    <do something with line>

The second one works by the fact that f.readline() returns '\n' for
empty lines and '' (the empty string, aka false) when reaching the
end-of-file.

I'm-not-even-going-to-try-to-defend-while-1'ly y'rs
-- bjorn