Python - Backward File Reading

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When we normally read a file, the contents are read line by line from the beginning of the file. But there may be scenarios where we want to read the last line first. For example, the data in the file has latest record in the bottom and we want to read the latest records first. To achieve this requirement we install the required package to perform this action by using the command below.

pip install file-read-backwards

But before reading the file backwards, let's read the content of the file line by line so that we can compare the result after backward reading.

with open ("Path\GodFather.txt", "r") as BigFile:
    data=BigFile.readlines()

# Print each line
	for i in range(len(data)):
    print "Line No- ",i 
    print data[i]

When we run the above program, we get the following output −

Line No-  0
Vito Corleone is the aging don (head) of the Corleone Mafia Family. 

Line No-  1
His youngest son Michael has returned from WWII just in time to see the wedding of Connie Corleone (Michael's sister) to Carlo Rizzi. 

Line No-  2
All of Michael's family is involved with the Mafia, but Michael just wants to live a normal life. Drug dealer Virgil Sollozzo is looking for Mafia families to offer him protection in exchange for a profit of the drug money. 

Line No-  3
He approaches Don Corleone about it, but, much against the advice of the Don's lawyer Tom Hagen, the Don is morally against the use of drugs, and turns down the offer.

Line No-  4
This does not please Sollozzo, who has the Don shot down by some of his hit men. 

Line No-  5
The Don barely survives, which leads his son Michael to begin a violent mob war against Sollozzo and tears the Corleone family apart.

Reading Lines Backward

Now to read the file backwards we use the installed module.

from file_read_backwards import FileReadBackwards

with FileReadBackwards("Path\GodFather.txt", encoding="utf-8") as BigFile:

# getting lines by lines starting from the last line up
    for line in BigFile:
        print line

When we run the above program, we get the following output −

The Don barely survives, which leads his son Michael to begin a violent mob war against Sollozzo and tears the Corleone family apart.
This does not please Sollozzo, who has the Don shot down by some of his hit men. 
He approaches Don Corleone about it, but, much against the advice of the Don's lawyer Tom Hagen, the Don is morally against the use of drugs, and turns down the offer.
All of Michael's family is involved with the Mafia, but Michael just wants to live a normal life. Drug dealer Virgil Sollozzo is looking for Mafia families to offer him protection in exchange for a profit of the drug money. 
His youngest son Michael has returned from WWII just in time to see the wedding of Connie Corleone (Michael's sister) to Carlo Rizzi. 
Vito Corleone is the aging don (head) of the Corleone Mafia Family.

You can verify the lines have been read in a reverse order.

Reading Words Backward

We can also read the words in the file backward. For this we first read the lines backwards and then tokenize the words in it with applying reverse function. In the below example we have word tokens printed backwards form the same file using both the package and nltk module. 

import nltk
from file_read_backwards import FileReadBackwards

with FileReadBackwards("Path\GodFather.txt", encoding="utf-8") as BigFile:

# getting lines by lines starting from the last line up
# And tokenizing with applying reverse()
    for line in BigFile:
        word_data= line
        nltk_tokens = nltk.word_tokenize(word_data)
        nltk_tokens.reverse()
        print (nltk_tokens)

When we run the above program we get the following output −

['.', 'apart', 'family', 'Corleone', 'the', 'tears', 'and', 'Sollozzo', 'against', 'war', 'mob', 'violent', 'a', 'begin', 'to', 'Michael', 'son', 'his', 'leads', 'which', ',', 'srvives', 'barely', 'Don', 'The']
['.', 'men', 'hit', 'his', 'of', 'some', 'by', 'down', 'shot', 'Don', 'the', 'has', 'who', ',', 'Sollozzo', 'please', 'not', 'does', 'This']
['.', 'offer', 'the', 'down', 'trns', 'and', ',', 'drgs', 'of', 'se', 'the', 'against', 'morally', 'is', 'Don', 'the', ',', 'Hagen', 'Tom', 'lawyer', "'s", 'Don', 'the', 'of', 'advice', 'the', 'against', 'mch', ',', 'bt', ',', 'it', 'abot', 'Corleone', 'Don', 'approaches', 'He']
['.', 'money', 'drg', 'the', 'of', 'profit', 'a', 'for', 'exchange', 'in', 'protection', 'him', 'offer', 'to', 'families', 'Mafia', 'for', 'looking', 'is', 'Sollozzo', 'Virgil', 'dealer', 'Drg', '.', 'life', 'normal', 'a', 'live', 'to', 'wants', 'jst', 'Michael', 'bt', ',', 'Mafia', 'the', 'with', 'involved', 'is', 'family', "'s", 'Michael', 'of', 'All']
['.', 'Rizzi', 'Carlo', 'to', ')', 'sister', "'s", 'Michael', '(', 'Corleone', 'Connie', 'of', 'wedding', 'the', 'see', 'to', 'time', 'in', 'jst', 'WWII', 'from', 'retrned', 'has', 'Michael', 'son', 'yongest', 'His']
['.', 'Family', 'Mafia', 'Corleone', 'the', 'of', ')', 'head', '(', 'don', 'aging', 'the', 'is', 'Corleone', 'Vito']
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