Python program to read file word by word

Given a text file, read it word by word and process or display each word individually.

Example: (Myfile.txt)

Output:
Geeks
4
geeks

Using split()

This method reads the file line by line and uses split() to break each line into individual words, making it a simple and efficient way to process words.

with open("Myfile.txt", "r") as f:
    for line in f:           
        for w in line.split():   
            print(w)         

Output

Geeks
4
Geeks

Explanation:

• for line in f: iterates over each line in the file
• line.split(): splits the line into words using whitespace
• for w in line.split(): loop over each word

Using a Generator Function

This method yields one word at a time while reading the file, making it memory-efficient and ideal for processing large files.

def words(fname):
    with open(fname, "r") as f:
        for line in f:       
            for w in line.split():  
                yield w       

for w in words("Myfile.txt"):
    print(w)

Output

Geeks
4
Geeks

Naive Manual Character-by-Character Approach

This method processes the file one character at a time without using Python’s built-in helpers, giving full control over how words and characters are counted.

with open("Myfile.txt", "r") as f:
    w = ""
    for ch in f.read():   
        if ch == " " or ch == "\n":
            if w:
                print(w)
                w = ""         
        else:
            w += ch            
    if w:
        print(w)

Output

Geeks
4
Geeks

Related Articles:

• Reading and Writing to text files in Python
• Python | Finding 'n' Character Words in a Text File