title: Remove the newline character in a list read from a file
body: <p>I have a simple program that takes an ID number and prints information for the person matching the ID. The information is stored in a .dat file, with one ID number per line.</p>
  
  <p>The problem is that my program is also reading the newline character \n from the file. I have tried the 'name'.split() method, but this doesn't seem to work for a list.</p>
  
  <p>My program:</p>
  
  <pre><code>from time import localtime, strftime
  
  files = open("grades.dat")
  request = open("requests.dat", "w")
  lists = files.readlines()
  grades = []
  
  for i in range(len(lists)):
      grades.append(lists[i].split(","))
  
  cont = "y"
  
  while cont == "y" or cont == "Y":
      answer = raw_input("Please enter the Student I.D. of whom you are looking: ")
      for i in range(len(grades)):
          if answer == grades[i][0]:
              print grades[i][1] + ", " + grades[i][2] + (" "*6) + grades[i][0] + (" "*6) + grades[i][3]
              time = strftime("%a, %b %d %Y %H:%M:%S", localtime())
              print time
              print "Exams - " + grades[i][11] + ", " + grades[i][12] + ", " + grades[i][13]
              print "Homework - " + grades[i][4] + ", " + grades[i][5] + ", " + grades[i][6] + ", " + grades[i][7] + ", " +grades[i][8] + ", " + grades[i][9] + ", " + grades[i][10]
              total = int(grades[i][4]) + int(grades[i][5]) + int(grades[i][6]) + int(grades[i][7]) + int(grades[i][8]) + int(grades[i][9]) + int(grades[i][10]) + int(grades[i][11]) + int(grades[i][12]) + int(grades[i][13])
              print "Total points earned - " + str(total)
              grade = float(total) / 550
              grade = grade * 100
              if grade &gt;= 90:
                  print "Grade: " + str(grade) + ", that is equal to an A."
              elif grade &gt;= 80 and grade &lt; 90:
                  print "Grade: " + str('%.2f' %grade) + ", that is equal to a B."
              elif grade &gt;= 70 and grade &lt; 80:
                  print "Grade: " + str('%.2f' %grade) + ", that is equal to a C."
              elif grade &gt;= 60 and grade &lt; 70:
                  print "Grade: " + str('%.2f' %grade) + ", that is equal to a D."
              else:
                  print "Grade: " + str('%.2f' %grade) + ", that is equal to an F."
              request.write(grades[i][0] + " " + grades[i][1] + ", " + grades [i][2] +
                            " " + time)
              request.write("\n")
  
  
      print
      cont = raw_input("Would you like to search again? ")
  
  if cont != "y" or cont != "Y":
      print "Goodbye."
  </code></pre>