Read text file into string array (and write)

Cannot update first answer.
Anyway, after Go1 release, there are some breaking changes, so I updated as shown below:

package main

import (
    "os"
    "bufio"
    "bytes"
    "io"
    "fmt"
    "strings"
)

// Read a whole file into the memory and store it as array of lines
func readLines(path string) (lines []string, err error) {
    var (
        file *os.File
        part []byte
        prefix bool
    )
    if file, err = os.Open(path); err != nil {
        return
    }
    defer file.Close()

    reader := bufio.NewReader(file)
    buffer := bytes.NewBuffer(make([]byte, 0))
    for {
        if part, prefix, err = reader.ReadLine(); err != nil {
            break
        }
        buffer.Write(part)
        if !prefix {
            lines = append(lines, buffer.String())
            buffer.Reset()
        }
    }
    if err == io.EOF {
        err = nil
    }
    return
}

func writeLines(lines []string, path string) (err error) {
    var (
        file *os.File
    )

    if file, err = os.Create(path); err != nil {
        return
    }
    defer file.Close()

    //writer := bufio.NewWriter(file)
    for _,item := range lines {
        //fmt.Println(item)
        _, err := file.WriteString(strings.TrimSpace(item) + "\n"); 
        //file.Write([]byte(item)); 
        if err != nil {
            //fmt.Println("debug")
            fmt.Println(err)
            break
        }
    }
    /*content := strings.Join(lines, "\n")
    _, err = writer.WriteString(content)*/
    return
}

func main() {
    lines, err := readLines("foo.txt")
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("Error: %s\n", err)
        return
    }
    for _, line := range lines {
        fmt.Println(line)
    }
    //array := []string{"7.0", "8.5", "9.1"}
    err = writeLines(lines, "foo2.txt")
    fmt.Println(err)
}

As of Go1.1 release, there is a bufio.Scanner API that can easily read lines from a file. Consider the following example from above, rewritten with Scanner:

package main

import (
    "bufio"
    "fmt"
    "log"
    "os"
)

// readLines reads a whole file into memory
// and returns a slice of its lines.
func readLines(path string) ([]string, error) {
    file, err := os.Open(path)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }
    defer file.Close()

    var lines []string
    scanner := bufio.NewScanner(file)
    for scanner.Scan() {
        lines = append(lines, scanner.Text())
    }
    return lines, scanner.Err()
}

// writeLines writes the lines to the given file.
func writeLines(lines []string, path string) error {
    file, err := os.Create(path)
    if err != nil {
        return err
    }
    defer file.Close()

    w := bufio.NewWriter(file)
    for _, line := range lines {
        fmt.Fprintln(w, line)
    }
    return w.Flush()
}

func main() {
    lines, err := readLines("foo.in.txt")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("readLines: %s", err)
    }
    for i, line := range lines {
        fmt.Println(i, line)
    }

    if err := writeLines(lines, "foo.out.txt"); err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("writeLines: %s", err)
    }
}

Note: ioutil is deprecated as of Go 1.16.

If the file isn't too large, this can be done with the ioutil.ReadFile and strings.Split functions like so:

content, err := ioutil.ReadFile(filename)
if err != nil {
    //Do something
}
lines := strings.Split(string(content), "\n")

You can read the documentation on ioutil and strings packages.

Tags:

Go