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Importing data

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg113415] Importing data
• From: David Higgins <dhi67540 at bigpond.net.au>
• Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2010 05:18:34 -0400 (EDT)

Hi all,

Relatively new user here.  I have a text file containing 540,000 lines of
data in 30 columns, fixed width.  Not all columns are populated for all data
lines.

When I import, Mathematica creates a list and populates the list elements
from 1 to the number of data elements it finds in each line, ignoring the
empty columns so for data lines with only, say 20 columns populated, it has
populated data elements 1 to 20 instead of skipping the missing ones.  Is
there a way to import data that allows me to define a template for the data
elements so that the right data ends up in the right elements in the list?

Cheers

David