python random.shuffle from lists in a text file

Question

Trying to do a random.shuffle which works well if the list is declared. In example 2, I'm trying to do this from a file that has 1000 entries with the first two lines shown. Is the txt file formatted wrong? I cant get this to work. I've tried many examples found on the net.

import random #example 1 list1 = ['sub', 'gig', 'bug'] random.shuffle(list1) print('list1:', list1) #Results list1: ['bug', 'gig', 'sub']

#example 2 #masterwords.txt has this on line 1 and 2

['bug', 'gig', 'sub'] ['frog', 'dog', 'cat'] with open("masterwords.txt", mode="r", encoding="utf-8") as file: lines = [] for line in file: line = line.strip() lines.append(line) random.shuffle(lines) print(lines) #Results: ["['frog', 'dog', 'cat']", "['bug', 'gig', 'sub']", '']

Take a look at the literal_eval function from the ast module — jackal
– jackal, Commented Oct 23, 2024 at 7:24

jackal · Accepted Answer · 2024-10-23 07:31:58Z

The data in the file are string representations of Python lists. You need to convert them into runtime lists. You can do this with the ast.literal_eval() function.

Let's assume the input file contains:

['bug', 'gig', 'sub'] ['frog', 'dog', 'cat']

Then:

from ast import literal_eval from random import shuffle with open("masterwords.txt") as mw: for line in mw: lst = literal_eval(line) shuffle(lst) print(lst)

Possible output:

['sub', 'gig', 'bug'] ['cat', 'dog', 'frog']

this worked perfectly. would it make a difference if i changed the masterwords.txt to masterwords.py and imported it then ran the code? Anyway, your solution was perfect, thank you!!

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