How to append new data onto a new line

Question

My code looks like this:

def storescores():

   hs = open("hst.txt","a")
   hs.write(name)
   hs.close() 

so if I run it and enter "Ryan" then run it again and enter "Bob" the file hst.txt looks like

RyanBob 

instead of

Ryan
Bob

How do I fix this?

Answer 1

If you want a newline, you have to write one explicitly. The usual way is like this:

hs.write(name + "\n")

This uses a backslash escape, \n, which Python converts to a newline character in string literals. It just concatenates your string, name, and that newline character into a bigger string, which gets written to the file.

It's also possible to use a multi-line string literal instead, which looks like this:

"""
"""

Or, you may want to use string formatting instead of concatenation:

hs.write("{}\n".format(name))

All of this is explained in the Input and Output chapter in the tutorial.

Answer 2

I had the same issue. And I was able to solve it by using a formatter.

file_name = "abc.txt"
new_string = "I am a new string."
opened_file = open(file_name, 'a')
opened_file.write("%r\n" %new_string)
opened_file.close()

I hope this helps.

Answer 3

I presume that all you are wanting is simple string concatenation:

def storescores():

   hs = open("hst.txt","a")
   hs.write(name + " ")
   hs.close() 

Alternatively, change the " " to "\n" for a newline.

Answer 4

In Python >= 3.6 you can use new string literal feature:

with open('hst.txt', 'a') as fd:
    fd.write(f'\n{name}')

Please notice using 'with statment' will automatically close file when it fd runs out of scope

Answer 5

All answers seem to work fine. If you need to do this many times, be aware that writing

hs.write(name + "\n")

constructs a new string in memory and appends that to the file.

More efficient would be

hs.write(name)
hs.write("\n")

which does not create a new string, just appends to the file.

Answer 6

The answer is not to add a newline after writing your string. That may solve a different problem. What you are asking is how to add a newline before you start appending your string. If you want to add a newline, but only if one does not already exist, you need to find out first, by reading the file.

For example,

with open('hst.txt') as fobj:
    text = fobj.read()

name = 'Bob'

with open('hst.txt', 'a') as fobj:
    if not text.endswith('\n'):
        fobj.write('\n')
    fobj.write(name)

You might want to add the newline after name, or you may not, but in any case, it isn't the answer to your question.