reading file line by line in go

Question

I'm unable to find file.ReadLine function in Go. I can figure out how to quickly write one, but just wondering if I'm overlooking something here. How does one read a file line by line?

Answer 1

Use:

• reader.ReadString('\n')
  • If you don't mind that the line could be very long (i.e. use a lot of RAM). It keeps the \n at the end of the string returned.
• reader.ReadLine()
  • If you care about limiting RAM consumption and don't mind the extra work of handling the case where the line is greater than the reader's buffer size.

I tested the various solutions suggested by writing a program to test the scenarios which are identified as problems in other answers:

• A file with a 4MB line.
• A file which doesn't end with a line break.

I found that:

• The Scanner solution does not handle long lines.
• The ReadLine solution is complex to implement.
• The ReadString solution is the simplest and works for long lines.

Here is code which demonstrates each solution, it can be run via go run main.go:

package main

import (
    "bufio"
    "bytes"
    "fmt"
    "io"
    "os"
)

func readFileWithReadString(fn string) (err error) {
    fmt.Println("readFileWithReadString")

    file, err := os.Open(fn)
    defer file.Close()

    if err != nil {
        return err
    }

    // Start reading from the file with a reader.
    reader := bufio.NewReader(file)

    var line string
    for {
        line, err = reader.ReadString('\n')

        fmt.Printf(" > Read %d characters\n", len(line))

        // Process the line here.
        fmt.Println(" > > " + limitLength(line, 50))

        if err != nil {
            break
        }
    }

    if err != io.EOF {
        fmt.Printf(" > Failed!: %v\n", err)
    }

    return
}

func readFileWithScanner(fn string) (err error) {
    fmt.Println("readFileWithScanner - this will fail!")

    // Don't use this, it doesn't work with long lines...

    file, err := os.Open(fn)
    defer file.Close()

    if err != nil {
        return err
    }

    // Start reading from the file using a scanner.
    scanner := bufio.NewScanner(file)

    for scanner.Scan() {
        line := scanner.Text()

        fmt.Printf(" > Read %d characters\n", len(line))

        // Process the line here.
        fmt.Println(" > > " + limitLength(line, 50))
    }

    if scanner.Err() != nil {
        fmt.Printf(" > Failed!: %v\n", scanner.Err())
    }

    return
}

func readFileWithReadLine(fn string) (err error) {
    fmt.Println("readFileWithReadLine")

    file, err := os.Open(fn)
    defer file.Close()

    if err != nil {
        return err
    }

    // Start reading from the file with a reader.
    reader := bufio.NewReader(file)

    for {
        var buffer bytes.Buffer

        var l []byte
        var isPrefix bool
        for {
            l, isPrefix, err = reader.ReadLine()
            buffer.Write(l)

            // If we've reached the end of the line, stop reading.
            if !isPrefix {
                break
            }

            // If we're just at the EOF, break
            if err != nil {
                break
            }
        }

        if err == io.EOF {
            break
        }

        line := buffer.String()

        fmt.Printf(" > Read %d characters\n", len(line))

        // Process the line here.
        fmt.Println(" > > " + limitLength(line, 50))
    }

    if err != io.EOF {
        fmt.Printf(" > Failed!: %v\n", err)
    }

    return
}

func main() {
    testLongLines()
    testLinesThatDoNotFinishWithALinebreak()
}

func testLongLines() {
    fmt.Println("Long lines")
    fmt.Println()

    createFileWithLongLine("longline.txt")
    readFileWithReadString("longline.txt")
    fmt.Println()
    readFileWithScanner("longline.txt")
    fmt.Println()
    readFileWithReadLine("longline.txt")
    fmt.Println()
}

func testLinesThatDoNotFinishWithALinebreak() {
    fmt.Println("No linebreak")
    fmt.Println()

    createFileThatDoesNotEndWithALineBreak("nolinebreak.txt")
    readFileWithReadString("nolinebreak.txt")
    fmt.Println()
    readFileWithScanner("nolinebreak.txt")
    fmt.Println()
    readFileWithReadLine("nolinebreak.txt")
    fmt.Println()
}

func createFileThatDoesNotEndWithALineBreak(fn string) (err error) {
    file, err := os.Create(fn)
    defer file.Close()

    if err != nil {
        return err
    }

    w := bufio.NewWriter(file)
    w.WriteString("Does not end with linebreak.")
    w.Flush()

    return
}

func createFileWithLongLine(fn string) (err error) {
    file, err := os.Create(fn)
    defer file.Close()

    if err != nil {
        return err
    }

    w := bufio.NewWriter(file)

    fs := 1024 * 1024 * 4 // 4MB

    // Create a 4MB long line consisting of the letter a.
    for i := 0; i < fs; i++ {
        w.WriteRune('a')
    }

    // Terminate the line with a break.
    w.WriteRune('\n')

    // Put in a second line, which doesn't have a linebreak.
    w.WriteString("Second line.")

    w.Flush()

    return
}

func limitLength(s string, length int) string {
    if len(s) < length {
        return s
    }

    return s[:length]
}

I tested on:

• go version go1.7 windows/amd64
• go version go1.6.3 linux/amd64
• go version go1.7.4 darwin/amd64

The test program outputs:

Long lines

readFileWithReadString
 > Read 4194305 characters
 > > aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
 > Read 12 characters
 > > Second line.

readFileWithScanner - this will fail!
 > Failed!: bufio.Scanner: token too long

readFileWithReadLine
 > Read 4194304 characters
 > > aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
 > Read 12 characters
 > > Second line.

No linebreak

readFileWithReadString
 > Read 28 characters
 > > Does not end with linebreak.

readFileWithScanner - this will fail!
 > Read 28 characters
 > > Does not end with linebreak.

readFileWithReadLine
 > Read 28 characters
 > > Does not end with linebreak.

Answer 2

NOTE: The accepted answer was correct in early versions of Go. See the highest voted answer contains the more recent idiomatic way to achieve this.

There is function ReadLine in package bufio.

Please note that if the line does not fit into the read buffer, the function will return an incomplete line. If you want to always read a whole line in your program by a single call to a function, you will need to encapsulate the ReadLine function into your own function which calls ReadLine in a for-loop.

bufio.ReadString('\n') isn't fully equivalent to ReadLine because ReadString is unable to handle the case when the last line of a file does not end with the newline character.

Answer 3

bufio.Reader.ReadLine() works well. But if you want to read each line by a string, try to use ReadString('\n'). It doesn't need to reinvent the wheel.

Answer 4

I like Lzap solution, I am new in Go, I woud like to ask to lzap but I could not do it I have not 50 points yet.. I change a little your solution and complete the code...

package main

import (
    "bufio"
    "fmt"
    "io"
    "os"
)

func main() {
    f, err := os.Open("archiveName")
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println(err)
        os.Exit(1)
    }
    defer f.Close()
    r := bufio.NewReader(f)
    line, err := r.ReadString(10)    // line defined once 
    for err != io.EOF {
        fmt.Print(line)              // or any stuff
        line, err = r.ReadString(10) //  line was defined before
    }
}

I am not sure why I need to test 'err' again, but in anyway we can do it. But, the main question is.. why Go do not produce error with the sentence => line, err := r.ReadString(10), inside the loop ? It is defined again and again each time the loop is executed. I avoid that situation with my change, any comment? I set the condition EOF in the 'for' as similar to a While too. Thanks

Answer 5

In the code bellow, I read the interests from the CLI until the user hits enter and I'm using Readline:

interests := make([]string, 1)
r := bufio.NewReader(os.Stdin)
for true {
    fmt.Print("Give me an interest:")
    t, _, _ := r.ReadLine()
    interests = append(interests, string(t))
    if len(t) == 0 {
        break;
    }
}
fmt.Println(interests)

Answer 6

import (
     "bufio"
     "os"
)

var (
    reader = bufio.NewReader(os.Stdin)
)

func ReadFromStdin() string{
    result, _ := reader.ReadString('\n')
    witl := result[:len(result)-1]
    return witl
}

Here is an example with function ReadFromStdin() it's like fmt.Scan(&name) but its takes all strings with blank spaces like: "Hello My Name Is ..."

var name string = ReadFromStdin()

println(name)