Importing tab-delimited data files?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg62604] Importing tab-delimited data files?
- From: AES <siegman at stanford.edu>
- Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 04:45:17 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: Stanford University
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
I create a text file "filedata" with the following content using a text
editor, with tabs between each number or string (5 tabs per line), and
no content -- not even a space, just successive adjacent tabs -- in the
empty slots.
(The columns should line up if your reader uses monospaced type.)
11 aaa 22 bbb 33 ccc
22 bbb 33 ccc
33 ccc
Opening Mathematica and using !!filedata reproduces exactly same thing:
11 aaa 22 bbb 33 ccc
22 bbb 33 ccc
33 ccc
Trying to follow this with
fileDataAsViewed = !!fildata
or
fileDataAsViewed = %
doesn't work, however.
Using the Mathematica expression
Import["datafile", "Table",
ConversionOptions->{"TableSeparators"->{{"\r","\n"},{"\t"}}}]
gives:
11 aaa 22 bbb 33 ccc
22 bbb 33 ccc
33 ccc
Recreating the text file with a space between the tabs in the empty
slots and applying the same Import[ ] expression, however, gives the
"right" answer:
11 aaa 22 bbb 33 ccc
22 bbb 33 ccc
33 ccc
I suppose this is not exactly unexpected. The problem is, the app that
creates the (much larger) tab-delimited filedata text file I really want
to load into a Mathematica Table creates numerous blank cells, i.e.
adjacent and unspaced tabs. I guess I'll just have to go at it with a
smart text editor and separate adjacent tabs before trying to load it.