Reading multidimensional array data into Python

Question

I have data in the format of 10000x500 matrix contained in a .txt file. In each row, data points are separated from each other by one whitespace and at the end of each row there a new line starts.

Normally I was able to read this kind of multidimensional array data into Python by using the following snippet of code:

with open("position.txt") as f:
    data = [line.split() for line in f]

# Get the data and convert to floats
ytemp = np.array(data) 
y = ytemp.astype(np.float) 

This code worked until now. When I try to use the exact some code with another set of data formatted in the same way, I get the following error:

setting an array element with a sequence.

When I try to get the 'shape' of ytemp, it gives me the following:

(10001,)

So it converts the rows to array, but not the columns.

I thought of any other information to include, but nothing came to my mind. Basically I'm trying to convert my data from a .txt file to a multidimensional array in Python. The code worked before, but now for some reason that is unclear to me it doesn't work. I tried to look compare the data, of course it's huge, but everything seems quite similar between the data that is working and the data that is not working.

I would be more than happy to provide any other information you may need. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Use numpy's builtin function:

data = numpy.loadtxt('position.txt')

Check out the documentation to explore other available options.