Python String splitlines()

The splitlines() method splits the string at line breaks and returns a list.

Example

# \n is a line boundary 
sentence = 'I\nlove\nPython\nProgramming.'

# returns a list after spliting string at line breaks resulting_list = sentence.splitlines()
print(resulting_list) # Output: ['I', 'love', 'Python', 'Programming.']

splitlines() Syntax

The syntax of the splitlines() method is:

string.splitlines([keepends])

Here, keepends can be True or any number.


splitlines() Parameters

The splitlines() method can take a single parameter:

  • keepends(optional) - it determines whether line breaks are included in the resulting list or not. It's value can be True or any number.

splitlines() Return Value

The splitlines() method returns:

  • a list of lines in the string.

If there are not line break characters, it returns a list with a single item (a single line).

Note: The splitlines() method splits on the following line boundaries:

Representation Description
\n Line Feed
\r Carriage Return
\r\n Carriage Return + Line Feed
\v or \x0b Line Tabulation
\f or \x0c Form Feed
\x1c File Separator
\x1d Group Separator
\x1e Record Separator
\x85 Next Line (C1 Control Code)
\u2028 Line Separator
\u2029 Paragraph Separator

Example 1: Python String splitlines()

# '\n' is a line break 
grocery = 'Milk\nChicken\nBread\rButter'

# returns a list after splitting the grocery string print(grocery.splitlines())

Output

['Milk', 'Chicken', 'Bread', 'Butter']

In the above example, we have used the splitlines() method to split the grocery string i.e. 'Milk\nChicken\r\nBread\rButter' at the line breaks.

Here, grocery.splitlines() splits grocery at line break '\n' and returns a list '['Milk', 'Chicken', 'Bread', 'Butter']' after removing the line break.


Example 2: splitlines() with Multi Line String

We can also split the lines from multi line strings using the splitlines() method. For example,

# multi line string 
grocery = '''Milk
Chicken
Bread
Butter'''

# returns a list after splitting the grocery string print(grocery.splitlines())

Output

['Milk', 'Chicken', 'Bread', 'Butter']

Here, the splitlines() method splits the multi line string grocery and returns the list ['Milk', 'Chicken', 'Bread', 'Butter'].


Example 3: Passing Boolean Value in splitlines()

grocery = 'Milk\nChicken\nBread\rButter'

# returns a list including line breaks resulting_list1 = grocery.splitlines(True)
print(resulting_list1)
# returns a list without including line breaks resulting_list2 = grocery.splitlines(False)
print(resulting_list2)

Output

['Milk\n', 'Chicken\n', 'Bread\r', 'Butter']
['Milk', 'Chicken', 'Bread', 'Butter']

In the above example, we have passed Boolean values True and False in the splitlines method to split 'Milk\nChicken\nBread\rButter'.

Here, in the method on passing:

  • True - returns a list including linebreaks in all items i.e. '['Milk\n', 'Chicken\n', 'Bread\r', 'Butter']'
  • False - returns a list without including linebreaks in the items i.e. ['Milk', 'Chicken', 'Bread', 'Butter']

Example 4: Passing Number in splitlines()

The splitlines() method takes an integer value as parameter. Here, 0 represents True and other positive or negative numbers indicate False. For example,

grocery = 'Milk\nChicken\nBread\rButter'

# returns list including line breaks resulting_list1 = grocery.splitlines(0)
print(resulting_list1)
# returns list without including line breaks resulting_list2 = grocery.splitlines(5)
print(resulting_list2)

Output

['Milk\n', 'Chicken\n', 'Bread\r', 'Butter']
['Milk', 'Chicken', 'Bread', 'Butter']

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