[python] Get Line Number of certain phrase in file Python

f = open('some_file.txt','r')
line_num = 0
search_phrase = "the dog barked"
for line in f.readlines():
    line_num += 1
    if line.find(search_phrase) >= 0:
        print line_num

EDIT 1.5 years later (after seeing it get another upvote): I'm leaving this as is; but if I was writing today would write something closer to Ash/suzanshakya's solution:

def line_num_for_phrase_in_file(phrase='the dog barked', filename='file.txt')
    with open(filename,'r') as f:
        for (i, line) in enumerate(f):
            if phrase in line:
                return i
    return -1
  • Using with to open files is the pythonic idiom -- it ensures the file will be properly closed when the block using the file ends.
  • Iterating through a file using for line in f is much better than for line in f.readlines(). The former is pythonic (e.g., would work if f is any generic iterable; not necessarily a file object that implements readlines), and more efficient f.readlines() creates an list with the entire file in memory and then iterates through it. * if search_phrase in line is more pythonic than if line.find(search_phrase) >= 0, as it doesn't require line to implement find, reads more easily to see what's intended, and isn't easily screwed up (e.g., if line.find(search_phrase) and if line.find(search_phrase) > 0 both will not work for all cases as find returns the index of the first match or -1).
  • Its simpler/cleaner to wrap an iterated item in enumerate like for i, line in enumerate(f) than to initialize line_num = 0 before the loop and then manually increment in the loop. (Though arguably, this is more difficult to read for people unfamiliar with enumerate.)

See code like pythonista