Import[] - limited from a pipe?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg103959] Import[] - limited from a pipe?
- From: Jason Ledbetter <jasonbrent at gmail.com>
- Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:21:55 -0400 (EDT)
Folk, I'm looking into various methods of importing data into mathematica from a piece of perl middleware (that talks to a database). Right now, the perl script is outputting CSV that I'm pulling in with Import[....,"CSV"] or "List" in some cases. In investigating other options (like Get) it seems that there are some limitations on Import[] that I don't quite understand. As a test, I'm looking at two components: 1 - a perl script that outputs "List[1,2,3,4]" (no newlines) and then exits. 2 - the output from that perl script redirected to a file "foo" In the first case: In[17]:= Import["!/full/path/test.pl", "Elements"] Import::fmtnosup: $Failed is not a supported Import format. Out[17]= $Failed In the second case: In[24]:= Import["/full/path/to/foo", "Elements"] Out[24]= {Comments, ExpressionList, Get, HeldExpressions} (* changing Elements to Get in the file version results in an appropriate List[1,2,3,4,5] being imported *) Is this a bug or expected behavior? If it is expected, where can I find/generate more information on the limitations of Import with a pipe? Thanks, -jbl