I have a folder named "filters". Here I am putting multible text files. I am building a class named ReadFilesToList that:

1. Opens the directory "filters"
2. Creates a list of text files into variable "filenames_list"
3. Read all text files from "filenames_list" into variable "filters_list"

When I call the class I want a list of the content of the text files, so I can use it later in my program.

This is what I get when I run my program:

['2|Emil|Emma', '3|Noah|Ella', '4|Oliver|Maia', '5|Philip|Olivia', '1|Noah|Alice', '2|William|Maja', '3|Hugo|Elsa', '4|Lucas|Astrid', '5|Liam|Wilma']
['2|Emil|Emma', '3|Noah|Ella', '4|Oliver|Maia', '5|Philip|Olivia', '1|Noah|Alice', '2|William|Maja', '3|Hugo|Elsa', '4|Lucas|Astrid', '5|Liam|Wilma']
['2|Emil|Emma', '3|Noah|Ella', '4|Oliver|Maia', '5|Philip|Olivia', '1|Noah|Alice', '2|William|Maja', '3|Hugo|Elsa', '4|Lucas|Astrid', '5|Liam|Wilma']
['2|Emil|Emma', '3|Noah|Ella', '4|Oliver|Maia', '5|Philip|Olivia', '1|Noah|Alice', '2|William|Maja', '3|Hugo|Elsa', '4|Lucas|Astrid', '5|Liam|Wilma']
['2|Emil|Emma', '3|Noah|Ella', '4|Oliver|Maia', '5|Philip|Olivia', '1|Noah|Alice', '2|William|Maja', '3|Hugo|Elsa', '4|Lucas|Astrid', '5|Liam|Wilma']
['2|Emil|Emma', '3|Noah|Ella', '4|Oliver|Maia', '5|Philip|Olivia', '1|Noah|Alice', '2|William|Maja', '3|Hugo|Elsa', '4|Lucas|Astrid', '5|Liam|Wilma']
['2|Emil|Emma', '3|Noah|Ella', '4|Oliver|Maia', '5|Philip|Olivia', '1|Noah|Alice', '2|William|Maja', '3|Hugo|Elsa', '4|Lucas|Astrid', '5|Liam|Wilma']
['2|Emil|Emma', '3|Noah|Ella', '4|Oliver|Maia', '5|Philip|Olivia', '1|Noah|Alice', '2|William|Maja', '3|Hugo|Elsa', '4|Lucas|Astrid', '5|Liam|Wilma']

This is what I want:

2|Emil|Emma
3|Noah|Ella
4|Oliver|Maia
5|Philip|Olivia
1|Noah|Alice
2|William|Maja
3|Hugo|Elsa
4|Lucas|Astrid
5|Liam|Wilma

Below is a overview of the program with the code.

norwegian.txt

Number      Boy     Girl
2           Emil    Emma
3           Noah    Ella
4           Oliver  Maia
5           Philip  Olivia

swedish.txt

Number  Boy         Girl
1       Noah        Alice
2       William     Maja
3       Hugo        Elsa
4       Lucas       Astrid
5       Liam        Wilma

main.py

from ReadFilesToList import ReadFilesToList

#myList = ReadFilesToList()
#for data in myList:
#    print(data)

#print(ReadFilesToList())

for c in ReadFilesToList():
    print(c)

ReadFilesToList.py

import os
import re


class ReadFilesToList:

    # Initialize class -------------------------------- #
    def __init__(self):
        self.current = 0
        self.high = 0

        self.filenames_list = [] # Generate list of all txt files to read
        self.filters_list = [] # Generate list of all keywords separated with |

        # Find all filters in "filters" directory
        for filename in os.listdir("filters"):
            with open(os.path.join("filters", filename), 'r') as f: # open in readonly mode
                #print(filename)
                self.filenames_list.append(filename)

        # Read filters
        for filename in self.filenames_list:
            #print(filename)

            # Read filter
            f = open('filters/' + filename)  # Open file on read mode
            data_list = f.read().splitlines()  # List with stripped line-breaks
            f.close()  # Close file

            # Remove first line
            del data_list[0]

            # Loop trough list and remove double tabs
            count = 0
            for line in data_list:
                data_list[count] = re.sub("[\t ]{2,}", "|", line) # Make separator |
                data_list[count] = data_list[count].replace("\t", "|") # Make separator |


                # Append to existing filters list
                self.filters_list.append(data_list[count])

                count += 1

        # Count number of items in data_list and use it as high
        self.high = len(self.filters_list)

    # Call class from other class --------------------- #
    def __iter__(self):
        return self

    # Next for a for loop over keywords --------------- #
    def __next__(self): # Python 2: def next(self)
        self.current += 1
        if self.current < self.high:
            return self.filters_list
        raise StopIteration

    # Call class from other class --------------------- #
    def __call__(self):
        return self.filters_list

>Solution :

Try this:

def __call__(self):
    return '\n'.join(self.filters_list)

Now when you call your class (and you print the result) you get:

>>> x = ReadFilesToList()
>>> print(x())
2|Emil|Emma
3|Noah|Ella
4|Oliver|Maia
5|Philip|Olivia
1|Noah|Alice
2|William|Maja
3|Hugo|Elsa
4|Lucas|Astrid
5|Liam|Wilma

Otherwise, if you want to keep your implementation of the __call__ method, then you would do the following:

>>> x = ReadFilesToList()
>>> print(*x(), sep='\n')
2|Emil|Emma
3|Noah|Ella
4|Oliver|Maia
5|Philip|Olivia
1|Noah|Alice
2|William|Maja
3|Hugo|Elsa
4|Lucas|Astrid
5|Liam|Wilma