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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?




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