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Re: Trouble with reading from file

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg72697] Re: Trouble with reading from file
• From: Jean-Marc Gulliet <jeanmarc.gulliet at gmail.com>
• Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 02:03:08 -0500 (EST)
• Organization: The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
• References: <eofisf$h39$1@smc.vnet.net>

Martin Schnabl wrote:
> I have computed fair number of data which I stored in a file using FormatType -> OutputForm option in OpenWrite. The trouble is that numbers like 10^6 are now written in two lines and I haven't managed to convince Mathematica to read back what it has written. Any advice ?
> 

Hi Martin,

Unfortunately, *OutputForm* is meant only as trick for displaying 
2D-math with ASCII characters (say when you output on a command line 
terminal or window, or to include some 2D-expressions in an ASCII 
email.) You *cannot* read back the expressions from Mathematica [1]:

"OutputForm[expr] prints as a twoâ??dimensional representation of expr 
using only keyboard characters.

OutputForm is an approximation to StandardForm which uses only ordinary 
keyboard characters.

The OutputForm of many kinds of expressions is quite different from 
their internal representation.

OutputForm cannot be used directly for input to Mathematica. [1]"

The online help is quite clear on this subject.

Regards,
Jean-Marc

[1] http://documents.wolfram.com/mathematica/functions/OutputForm