Using Python to Read File Word by Word

To read a file word by word using Python, you can loop over each line and then loop over all of the words in the line.

with open("example.txt","r") as f:
    for line in f:
        for word in line.split(" "): 
            #do something here

When reading files, the ability to read files sequentially word by word can be very useful.

Reading text from a file is easy with the Python open() function. Then, once you have the file open, you can read it line by line, word by word, and even character by character with some extra logic.

To read a file word by word in Python, you can loop over each line in a file and then get the words in each line by using the Python string split() function.

Below is a simple example showing you how to read a file word by word in Python.

with open("example.txt","r") as f:
    for line in f:
        for word in line.split(" "): 
            #do something here

How to Read File Line by Line Using Python

If you want to iterate over all lines in a file using Python, we can take the example from above and make a few adjustments.

To read a file character by character in Python, you can loop over each line in a file with a simple for loop.

Below is a simple example showing you how to read a file line by line by iterating through each line in a file using Python.

with open("example.txt","r") as f:
    for line in f:
        #do something here

How to Read File Character by Character Using Python

If you want to read a file character by character using Python, we can take the example from above and make a few adjustments.

Instead of using the string split() function, we can just loop over all characters in each line.

Below is an example showing how you can read a file character by character using Python.

with open("example.txt","r") as f:
    for line in f:
        for char in line: 
            #do something here

Hopefully this article has been useful for you to learn how to read a file word by word in Python.