Reading the longest line in a list?

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May 2nd, 2008, 10:49 PM

ayeyo

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Reading the longest line in a list?

Suppose i want to read and print the longest line out of a list of my items from a txt file without mentioning that specifc line manually. Whats the best code to be suggested to identify the longest line out of that list and print THAT line only.Is there a way or such code in python?

Radio
Television
Cellphone
Washing machine
(should print out washing machine as its the longest line here)

i know how to put manually the address of the line and read it.But isnt there any code that identifies the longest lenght and prints it out itself??

Thanks

May 3rd, 2008, 03:58 AM

DevCoach

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Use the max function with the key parameter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by python docs

max( iterable[, args...][key])
With a single argument iterable, return the largest item of a non-empty iterable (such as a string, tuple or list). With more than one argument, return the largest of the arguments.

The optional key argument specifies a one-argument ordering function like that used for list.sort(). The key argument, if supplied, must be in keyword form (for example, "max(a,b,c,key=func)"). Changed in version 2.5: Added support for the optional key argument.

for example:

python Code:

Original - python Code
>>> lines = ''' ... Radio ... Television ... Cellphone ... Washing machine ... etc ... '''.splitlines() >>> print max(lines, key=len) Washing machine

>>> lines = '''
... Radio
... Television
... Cellphone
... Washing machine
... etc
... '''.splitlines()
 
>>> print max(lines, key=len)
Washing machine

This will work if lines is any iterable object, including a file.

Dave

May 3rd, 2008, 01:10 PM

ayeyo

Registered User

Join Date: Apr 2008

Posts: 6

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Quote:

Originally Posted by DevCoach

Use the max function with the key parameter.

for example:

python Code:

Original - python Code
>>> lines = ''' ... Radio ... Television ... Cellphone ... Washing machine ... etc ... '''.splitlines() >>> print max(lines, key=len) Washing machine

>>> lines = '''
... Radio
... Television
... Cellphone
... Washing machine
... etc
... '''.splitlines()
 
>>> print max(lines, key=len)
Washing machine

This will work if lines is any iterable object, including a file.

Dave

Thank you Dave! Just one last thing how can i combine this code with the open(filnename, 'r') code if the list is from a txt file?

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