[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > hi > > i have a file something like this > > abcdefgh > ijklmnopq > 12345678 > rstuvwxyz > ..... > ..... > ..... > 12345678 > ..... > > whenever i search the file and reach 12345678, how do i get the line > just above and below ( or more than 1 line above/below) the pattern > 12345678 and save to variables? thanks
You could use the re module to search everything at once: >>> import re >>> print re.findall('\n([^\n]*)\n12345678\n([^\n]*)', open('input.dat').read()) [('ijklmnopq ', 'rstuvwxyz '), ('..... ', '.....')] Raymond -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list