Python File readline() Method

The readline() method reads an entire line from a file. Newline characters are preserved in the string. If the size parameter is specified and is non-negative, it represents the maximum number of bytes, including newline characters and incomplete lines.

An empty string is returned only if EOF is encountered.

Syntax

The following is the syntax of the readline() method:

fileObject.readline(size)

Parameters

• size – This is the number of bytes to read from the file.

Return Value

This method returns the line read from the file.

The following example shows the usage of the readline() method.

Suppose the file ‘foo.txt’ contains the following text –

This is 1st line
This is 2nd line
This is 3rd line
This is 4th line
This is 5th line

Example

# Open a file
fo = open("foo.txt", "r+")
print ("Name of the file: ", fo.name)
line = fo.readline()
print ("Read Line: %s" % (line))
line = fo.readline(5)
print ("Read Line: %s" % (line))

# Close opened file
fo.close()

When we run the above program, it will produce the following result –

 line-numbers">Name of the file: foo.txt
Read Line: This is 1st line
Read Line: This