Import variable and data
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg32696] Import variable and data
- From: "Mark Van De Vyver" <mvdv at bigfoot.com>
- Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2002 03:42:12 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: The University of Western Australia
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Hi MathGroup,
I'm having trouble with the following variable and data import:
The import file is input.txt:
a b c d
1 23 45 678
inputData=Import[input.txt,"Table"]
{{a,b,c,d},{1,23,45,678}}
This all works OK.
Head[..] indicates the a,b,c and d are strings, which is fine, because
ToExpression[..] changes them to symbols. What I'd like to do is use
inputData to do the following:
{a,b,c,d}={1,23,45,678}
However, if I try
ToExpression[ inputData[[1]] ] = inputData[[2]]
I get an error:
Set::write: Tag ToExpression in ToExpression[a] is Protected.
If I then enter 'a' in Mathematica I do not get 1 returned! No matter how I try I
can't work it so that when I enter the symbol 'a' in Mathematica I get the value
from inputData[[2]].
Not sure if that makes sense?