How to Find String in File using Python

1. Use the File readlines() Method to Find a String in a File in Python
2. Use the File read() Method to Search a String in a File in Python
3. Use find Method to Search a String in a File in Python
4. Use mmap Module to Search a String in a File in Python

The tutorial explains how to find a specific string in a text file in Python.

Use the File readlines() Method to Find a String in a File in Python

Pyton file readlines() method returns the file content split to a list by the new line. We can use the for loop to iterate through the list and use the in operator to check whether the string is in the line in every iteration.

If the string is found in the line, it returns True and breaks the loop. If the string is not found after iterating all lines, it returns False eventually.

An example code for this approach is given below:

file = open("temp.txt", "w")
file.write("blabla is nothing.")
file.close()


def check_string():
    with open("temp.txt") as temp_f:
        datafile = temp_f.readlines()
    for line in datafile:
        if "blabla" in line:
            return True  # The string is found
    return False  # The string does not exist in the file


if check_string():
    print("True")
else:
    print("False")

Output:

True

Use the File read() Method to Search a String in a File in Python

The file read() method returns the content of the file as a whole string. Then we can use the in operator to check whether the string is in the returned string.

An example code is given below:

file = open("temp.txt", "w")
file.write("blabla is nothing.")
file.close()


with open("temp.txt") as f:
    if "blabla" in f.read():
        print("True")

Output:

True

Use find Method to Search a String in a File in Python

A simple find method can be used with the read() method to find the string in the file. The find method is passed the required string. It returns 0 if the string is found and -1 if the string is not found.

An example code is given below.

file = open("temp.txt", "w")
file.write("blabla is nothing.")
file.close()

print(open("temp.txt", "r").read().find("blablAa"))

Output:

-1

Use mmap Module to Search a String in a File in Python

The mmap module can also be used to find a string in a file in Python and can improve the performance if the file size is relatively big. The mmap.mmap() method creates a string-like object in Python 2 that checks the implicit file only and does not read the whole file.

An example code in Python 2 is given below:

# python 2

import mmap

file = open("temp.txt", "w")
file.write("blabla is nothing.")
file.close()

with open("temp.txt") as f:
    s = mmap.mmap(f.fileno(), 0, access=mmap.ACCESS_READ)
    if s.find("blabla") != -1:
        print("True")

Output:

True

However, in Python3 and above, mmap doesn’t behave like the string-like object but creates a bytearray object. So the find method looks for bytes and not for strings.

An example code for this is given below:

import mmap

file = open("temp.txt", "w")
file.write("blabla is nothing.")
file.close()

with open("temp.txt") as f:
    s = mmap.mmap(f.fileno(), 0, access=mmap.ACCESS_READ)
    if s.find(b"blabla") != -1:
        print("True")

Output:

True