Reading a multiple line .txt file into an array Python

Question

I have a text file formatted as follows

a,b,c,d,e,f,
g,h,i,j,k,l,

How would I read this and store it as an array that looks like [[a,b,c,d,e,f],[g,h,i,j,k,l]]?

try splitting by "," and "\n" by my logic that will create a list with 2 lists with the values — L_Church, Feb 01 '18 at 12:05
Did you even bother searching? There are dozens, if not hundreds, of stack overflow posts about reading csv files. — Cory Kramer, Feb 01 '18 at 12:07

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 01 '18 at 12:05

When reading comma separated values from a file, it is easiest to use Python's CSV library, for example:

import csv

with open('input.csv', 'rb') as f_input:
    data = list(csv.reader(f_input))

print data

This also then copes with the case when the entries contain a comma (and is enclosed in quotes). For example this should contain 6 cells:

a,b,c,"d,e,f",h,i

joppich · Answer 2 · 2018-02-01T12:23:19.153

1

with open('yourfile.txt') as f:
    lines = [line.strip().split(',') for line in f]

edited Feb 01 '18 at 12:23

answered Feb 01 '18 at 12:06

joppich

Would this not create an empty element at the end of each inner list? – Jongware Feb 01 '18 at 12:11
no, it would create a useless list around the inner list and leave the newline on the last char. edited accordingly – joppich Feb 01 '18 at 12:24

2 Answers2