How do I split a multi-line string into multiple lines?

inputString.splitlines()

Will give you a list with each item, the splitlines() method is designed to split each line into a list element.

Like the others said:

inputString.split('\n')  # --> ['Line 1', 'Line 2', 'Line 3']

This is identical to the above, but the string module's functions are deprecated and should be avoided:

import stringstring.split(inputString, '\n')  # --> ['Line 1', 'Line 2', 'Line 3']

Alternatively, if you want each line to include the break sequence (CR,LF,CRLF), use the splitlines method with a True argument:

inputString.splitlines(True)  # --> ['Line 1\n', 'Line 2\n', 'Line 3']

Use str.splitlines().

splitlines() handles newlines properly, unlike split("\n").

It also has the the advantage mentioned by @efotinis of optionally including the newline character in the split result when called with a True argument.

Why you shouldn't use split("\n"):

\n, in Python, represents a Unix line-break (ASCII decimal code 10), independently from the platform where you run it. However, the linebreak representation is platform-dependent. On Windows, \n is two characters, CR and LF (ASCII decimal codes 13 and 10, AKA \r and \n), while on any modern Unix (including OS X), it's the single character LF.

print, for example, works correctly even if you have a string with line endings that don't match your platform:

>>> print " a \n b \r\n c " a  b  c

However, explicitly splitting on "\n", will yield platform-dependent behaviour:

>>> " a \n b \r\n c ".split("\n")[' a ', ' b \r', ' c ']

Even if you use os.linesep, it will only split according to the newline separator on your platform, and will fail if you're processing text created in other platforms, or with a bare \n:

>>> " a \n b \r\n c ".split(os.linesep)[' a \n b ', ' c ']

splitlines solves all these problems:

>>> " a \n b \r\n c ".splitlines()[' a ', ' b ', ' c ']

Reading files in text mode partially mitigates the newline representation problem, as it converts Python's \n into the platform's newline representation.However, text mode only exists on Windows. On Unix systems, all files are opened in binary mode, so using split('\n') in a UNIX system with a Windows file will lead to undesired behavior. Also, it's not unusual to process strings with potentially different newlines from other sources, such as from a socket.