Python file reading canot recognize tab separated columns

Question

with open("data3.txt") as f:
    data = f.read()

data = data.split('\n')
x = [row.split('    ')[0] for row in data]
y = [row.split('    ')[1] for row in data]

I need to read the data file (which is a text file, with columns separated by tab), but I am not able to read it using the above code, where I have copied the 'tab' spacing from the .txt file and pasted it in the code directly. What is the reason this is not happening?

possible duplicate of [How do I write a "tab" in python?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4488570/how-do-i-write-a-tab-in-python) — David Zemens, May 20 '15 at 18:46

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered May 20 '15 at 18:45

0

Perhaps your text editor or IDE "helpfully" converted your tab character into spaces for you.

Consider using row.split('\t') instead.

answered May 20 '15 at 18:45

Kevin

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 20 '15 at 18:45

0

You need to split it on the tabs, not on the spaces, something like:

In [1]: x = "a\tb\tc"

In [2]: print x
a       b       c

In [3]: x.split('\t')
Out[3]: ['a', 'b', 'c']

The \t is the tab character.

answered May 20 '15 at 18:45

AlG

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Python file reading canot recognize tab separated columns

2 Answers2