Sometimes, we want to delete a specific line in a file with Python.
In this article, we’ll look at how to delete a specific line in a file with Python.
How to delete a specific line in a file with Python?
To delete a specific line in a file with Python, we can read the file with open and readlines.
Then we open the file again with write permission with open, loop through each line to find the lines that we want to include and write them back to the file.
For instance, if our file has:
yourfile.txt
foo
bar
nickname_to_delete
baz
Then we write:
with open("yourfile.txt", "r") as f:
lines = f.readlines()
with open("yourfile.txt", "w") as f:
for line in lines:
if line.strip("\n") != "nickname_to_delete":
f.write(line)
to open the file with read permission and read the lines in the file with:
with open("yourfile.txt", "r") as f:
lines = f.readlines()
Then we open the file with write permission, loop through each line and write the lines that we want to include in the file with:
with open("yourfile.txt", "w") as f:
for line in lines:
if line.strip("\n") != "nickname_to_delete":
f.write(line)
Calling f.write clear the file and only write the lines we want to include.
Now yourfile.txt is:
foo
bar
baz
Conclusion
To delete a specific line in a file with Python, we can read the file with open and readlines.
Then we open the file again with write permission with open, loop through each line to find the lines that we want to include and write them back to the file.
