How do I remove things that are in a list from a text file

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I have automated finding the people's last names from a text file and I have stored their names in a (var)list I want to delete their last names from the text file.
and I don't fully know how to use truncate
there might be mistakes & if there is not enough information just ask .

What I have tried:

sep = ' '
with open("male.txt", "r+") as f:
    FOUND2die = []
    j = f.readlines()
    f.seek(0)
    for i in j:
        res = i.rsplit(sep, 1)[-1]
        FOUND2die.append(res.strip())
        print(res)
        if i != res:
            f.write(i)
    print("Total Words are "+str(len(FOUND2die)))
    f.truncate()

thank you for your time

Posted 19-Aug-22 20:43pm

Hiruy Metsihafe

Updated 19-Aug-22 22:08pm

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Richard MacCutchan · Accepted Answer · 2022-08-19T22:08:00

Solution 1

The following code does not look correct. The variable i contains the complete line, but res contains only the last word of the line. The chances are that the two will never be the same.

Python

if i != res:
    f.write(i)

Take a look at Built-in Types — Python 3.10.6 documentation[^] for the functions that can be used to remove data from the end of a string.

And you should not write back into your original file, as if anything causes your program to fail mid-processing then all your data may be lost. You should read from the input file, but write the updated information to a new file. That way you can check that the new data is correct before you destroy the original.

Posted 19-Aug-22 22:08pm

Richard MacCutchan

Comments

Hiruy Metsihafe 20-Aug-22 4:20am

I wanted to read the list then get the last names and find the names in the text file and like delete them

Richard MacCutchan 20-Aug-22 4:41am

Why do you need the list when you know that the last field of every line is the part to be removed?

Hiruy Metsihafe 20-Aug-22 4:53am

it was just for testing if its working

Richard MacCutchan 20-Aug-22 5:08am

Fine but you still need to do what I suggested and use separate input and output files.

Hiruy Metsihafe 20-Aug-22 5:11am

yes, thanks for the idea. so I have to write it into another file any ideas for writing it in a strip?

How do I remove things that are in a list from a text file

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How do I remove things that are in a list from a text file

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