How to read a file in reverse order using python? I want to read a file from last line to first line.
Most of the answers need to read the whole file before doing anything. This sample reads increasingly large samples from the end.
I only saw Murat Yükselen's answer while writing this answer. It's nearly the same, which I suppose is a good thing. The sample below also deals with \r and increases its buffersize at each step. I also have some unit tests to back this code up.
def readlines_reversed(f):
""" Iterate over the lines in a file in reverse. The file must be
open in 'rb' mode. Yields the lines unencoded (as bytes), including the
newline character. Produces the same result as readlines, but reversed.
If this is used to reverse the line in a file twice, the result is
exactly the same.
"""
head = b""
f.seek(0, 2)
t = f.tell()
buffersize, maxbuffersize = 64, 4096
while True:
if t <= 0:
break
# Read next block
buffersize = min(buffersize * 2, maxbuffersize)
tprev = t
t = max(0, t - buffersize)
f.seek(t)
lines = f.read(tprev - t).splitlines(True)
# Align to line breaks
if not lines[-1].endswith((b"\n", b"\r")):
lines[-1] += head # current tail is previous head
elif head == b"\n" and lines[-1].endswith(b"\r"):
lines[-1] += head # Keep \r\n together
elif head:
lines.append(head)
head = lines.pop(0) # can be '\n' (ok)
# Iterate over current block in reverse
for line in reversed(lines):
yield line
if head:
yield head