extract and count lists from text file in python

I have a large text file that includes so many lists. Each list includes random numbers as follows.
Test file:

[-1460,-1460,-1460,-1460,-1460,0,-1460,0,-1460,-1460,-1460,45,-1460,-1460,-1460,-1460,-1460,-1460]
[250,-1250,36,-1250,-1250,33,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,-490,-1243,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,33,-1250,33,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,33,-496,-1243,-1250,33,-1250,-1246,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,35,-1250,-1250,33,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,33,-1250,-1250,-1250,-1250,-525,-1250,33,-259,-1250]
[2,-1232,34,34,34,0,0,-1232,-1232,-1232,-1232,34,34,-1232,-1232,-1232,-1232,-1232,-1232,-1232,-1232,34,34,-1232,34,-1232,34,34,-1232,-1232,-1232,39,-1232,34,-1232,-1232,-1232,34,-1232,0,0,34,-1232,-1232,-1232,-1232,-1232,517,0,34,34,34,-1232,-1232,-1232,-1232,-1232,-1232,34,-1232,-1232,-1232,34,-1232,34,-1232,34,-1232,34]
......

First, I want to count how many lists are there in the text file. Then, I want to extract every list separately for further processing.

I created a code to read the text file, but it read the whole file contents as a one-string variable, as follows:

# opening the file in read mode
my_file = open("R1E1.txt", "r")

# reading the file
data = my_file.read()

>Solution :

To count the number of lists in the file, you can read the file line by line and count the lines that start with "[" (assuming that each list starts with "[" and ends with "]"). Here’s the code:

with open("R1E1.txt", "r") as my_file:
count = 0
for line in my_file:
    if line.startswith("["):
        count += 1
print("Number of lists:", count)

To extract each list separately, you can read the file line by line and append each line to a buffer until you find a line that ends with "]", which marks the end of a list. Once you find the end of a list, you can process the buffer as a JSON array (using the json module), and then reset the buffer to start reading the next list. Here’s the code:

import json

with open("R1E1.txt", "r") as my_file:
    buffer = ""
    for line in my_file:
        if line.endswith("]\n"):  # end of list
            buffer += line.rstrip()
            lst = json.loads(buffer)
            print("List:", lst)
            buffer = ""
        elif line.startswith("["):  # start of new list
            buffer = line.rstrip()
        else:  # middle of a list
            buffer += line.rstrip()

This code prints each list separately as a Python list of integers. You can replace the print statement with your own processing logic. Note that this code assumes that each list is a valid JSON array (i.e., it contains only integers, and the elements are separated by commas). If your file format is different, you may need to adjust the code accordingly.