Lazy Method for Reading Big File in Python?

To write a lazy function, just use yield:

def read_in_chunks(file_object, chunk_size=1024):
    """Lazy function (generator) to read a file piece by piece.
    Default chunk size: 1k."""
    while True:
        data = file_object.read(chunk_size)
        if not data:
            break
        yield data


with open('really_big_file.dat') as f:
    for piece in read_in_chunks(f):
        process_data(piece)

---

Another option would be to use iter and a helper function:

f = open('really_big_file.dat')
def read1k():
    return f.read(1024)

for piece in iter(read1k, ''):
    process_data(piece)

---

If the file is line-based, the file object is already a lazy generator of lines:

for line in open('really_big_file.dat'):
    process_data(line)

file.readlines() takes in an optional size argument which approximates the number of lines read in the lines returned.

bigfile = open('bigfilename','r')
tmp_lines = bigfile.readlines(BUF_SIZE)
while tmp_lines:
    process([line for line in tmp_lines])
    tmp_lines = bigfile.readlines(BUF_SIZE)

There are already many good answers, but if your entire file is on a single line and you still want to process "rows" (as opposed to fixed-size blocks), these answers will not help you.

99% of the time, it is possible to process files line by line. Then, as suggested in this answer, you can to use the file object itself as lazy generator:

with open('big.csv') as f:
    for line in f:
        process(line)

However, one may run into very big files where the row separator is not '\n' (a common case is '|').

• Converting '|' to '\n' before processing may not be an option because it can mess up fields which may legitimately contain '\n' (e.g. free text user input).
• Using the csv library is also ruled out because the fact that, at least in early versions of the lib, it is hardcoded to read the input line by line.

For these kind of situations, I created the following snippet [Updated in May 2021 for Python 3.8+]:

def rows(f, chunksize=1024, sep='|'):
    """
    Read a file where the row separator is '|' lazily.

    Usage:

    >>> with open('big.csv') as f:
    >>>     for r in rows(f):
    >>>         process(r)
    """
    row = ''
    while (chunk := f.read(chunksize)) != '':   # End of file
        while (i := chunk.find(sep)) != -1:     # No separator found
            yield row + chunk[:i]
            chunk = chunk[i+1:]
            row = ''
        row += chunk
    yield row

[For older versions of python]:

def rows(f, chunksize=1024, sep='|'):
    """
    Read a file where the row separator is '|' lazily.

    Usage:

    >>> with open('big.csv') as f:
    >>>     for r in rows(f):
    >>>         process(r)
    """
    curr_row = ''
    while True:
        chunk = f.read(chunksize)
        if chunk == '': # End of file
            yield curr_row
            break
        while True:
            i = chunk.find(sep)
            if i == -1:
                break
            yield curr_row + chunk[:i]
            curr_row = ''
            chunk = chunk[i+1:]
        curr_row += chunk

I was able to use it successfully to solve various problems. It has been extensively tested, with various chunk sizes. Here is the test suite I am using, for those who need to convince themselves:

test_file = 'test_file'

def cleanup(func):
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        func(*args, **kwargs)
        os.unlink(test_file)
    return wrapper

@cleanup
def test_empty(chunksize=1024):
    with open(test_file, 'w') as f:
        f.write('')
    with open(test_file) as f:
        assert len(list(rows(f, chunksize=chunksize))) == 1

@cleanup
def test_1_char_2_rows(chunksize=1024):
    with open(test_file, 'w') as f:
        f.write('|')
    with open(test_file) as f:
        assert len(list(rows(f, chunksize=chunksize))) == 2

@cleanup
def test_1_char(chunksize=1024):
    with open(test_file, 'w') as f:
        f.write('a')
    with open(test_file) as f:
        assert len(list(rows(f, chunksize=chunksize))) == 1

@cleanup
def test_1025_chars_1_row(chunksize=1024):
    with open(test_file, 'w') as f:
        for i in range(1025):
            f.write('a')
    with open(test_file) as f:
        assert len(list(rows(f, chunksize=chunksize))) == 1

@cleanup
def test_1024_chars_2_rows(chunksize=1024):
    with open(test_file, 'w') as f:
        for i in range(1023):
            f.write('a')
        f.write('|')
    with open(test_file) as f:
        assert len(list(rows(f, chunksize=chunksize))) == 2

@cleanup
def test_1025_chars_1026_rows(chunksize=1024):
    with open(test_file, 'w') as f:
        for i in range(1025):
            f.write('|')
    with open(test_file) as f:
        assert len(list(rows(f, chunksize=chunksize))) == 1026

@cleanup
def test_2048_chars_2_rows(chunksize=1024):
    with open(test_file, 'w') as f:
        for i in range(1022):
            f.write('a')
        f.write('|')
        f.write('a')
        # -- end of 1st chunk --
        for i in range(1024):
            f.write('a')
        # -- end of 2nd chunk
    with open(test_file) as f:
        assert len(list(rows(f, chunksize=chunksize))) == 2

@cleanup
def test_2049_chars_2_rows(chunksize=1024):
    with open(test_file, 'w') as f:
        for i in range(1022):
            f.write('a')
        f.write('|')
        f.write('a')
        # -- end of 1st chunk --
        for i in range(1024):
            f.write('a')
        # -- end of 2nd chunk
        f.write('a')
    with open(test_file) as f:
        assert len(list(rows(f, chunksize=chunksize))) == 2

if __name__ == '__main__':
    for chunksize in [1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024]:
        test_empty(chunksize)
        test_1_char_2_rows(chunksize)
        test_1_char(chunksize)
        test_1025_chars_1_row(chunksize)
        test_1024_chars_2_rows(chunksize)
        test_1025_chars_1026_rows(chunksize)
        test_2048_chars_2_rows(chunksize)
        test_2049_chars_2_rows(chunksize)