[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
For gigantic files (i.e. can't put all in RAM at once) just make sure you always remember the previously read line. Something like this: old = None f = open('mybigfile.txt') for line in f: if line == '12345678\n': print old, print line, print f.next(), old=line -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list