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Importing text file as machine-precision array

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg118037] Importing text file as machine-precision array
  • From: Sidney Cadot <sidney at jigsaw.nl>
  • Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2011 07:28:54 -0400 (EDT)

Hi all,

I am trying to import a big text file containing non-sparse 2D
numerical data into Mathematica. My aim is to get an array where the
numbers are stored as machine-precision numbers. In other words,
ByteCount[data] should be approximately equal to 8 times the number of
table elements (assuming machine precision corresponds to 8-byte
IEEE-754 numbers).

If I do a straight data=Import["file","Table"], the file is parsed
with all numbers represented as arbitrary precision floating point
numbers; the data structure is ten times as big as it should be. If I
do data=N[data] afterwards, the data is still four times as big as I
would have expected.

What is the appropriate way to accomplish what I want? Unfortunately,
I cannot seem to find an option to Import[] to do this immediately
when reading the data.


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