def save_list(filename, list): f = file(filename, "w") for item in list: print >> f, item f.close() def load_list(filename): f = file(filename, "r") lst = [] for line in f: lst.append(line.strip()) f.close() return lst test_list = ["first line", "second line", "that's all"] save_list(u"c:\\python\\test.txt", test_list) print load_list(u"c:\\python\\test.txt")