How to read numbers from file in Python?

I'd like to read numbers from file into two dimensional array.

File contents:

• line containing w, h
• h lines containing w integers separated with space

For example:

4 3
1 2 3 4
2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9

Assuming you don't have extraneous whitespace:

with open('file') as f:
    w, h = [int(x) for x in next(f).split()] # read first line
    array = []
    for line in f: # read rest of lines
        array.append([int(x) for x in line.split()])

You could condense the last for loop into a nested list comprehension:

with open('file') as f:
    w, h = [int(x) for x in next(f).split()]
    array = [[int(x) for x in line.split()] for line in f]

To me this kind of seemingly simple problem is what Python is all about. Especially if you're coming from a language like C++, where simple text parsing can be a pain in the butt, you'll really appreciate the functionally unit-wise solution that python can give you. I'd keep it really simple with a couple of built-in functions and some generator expressions.

You'll need open(name, mode), myfile.readlines(), mystring.split(), int(myval), and then you'll probably want to use a couple of generators to put them all together in a pythonic way.

# This opens a handle to your file, in 'r' read mode
file_handle = open('mynumbers.txt', 'r')
# Read in all the lines of your file into a list of lines
lines_list = file_handle.readlines()
# Extract dimensions from first line. Cast values to integers from strings.
cols, rows = (int(val) for val in lines_list[0].split())
# Do a double-nested list comprehension to get the rest of the data into your matrix
my_data = [[int(val) for val in line.split()] for line in lines_list[1:]]

Look up generator expressions here. They can really simplify your code into discrete functional units! Imagine doing the same thing in 4 lines in C++... It would be a monster. Especially the list generators, when I was I C++ guy I always wished I had something like that, and I'd often end up building custom functions to construct each kind of array I wanted.

Not sure why do you need w,h. If these values are actually required and mean that only specified number of rows and cols should be read than you can try the following:

output = []
with open(r'c:\file.txt', 'r') as f:
    w, h  = map(int, f.readline().split())
    tmp = []
    for i, line in enumerate(f):
        if i == h:
            break
        tmp.append(map(int, line.split()[:w]))
    output.append(tmp)

is working with both python2(e.g. Python 2.7.10) and python3(e.g. Python 3.6.4)

with open('in.txt') as f:
  rows,cols=np.fromfile(f, dtype=int, count=2, sep=" ")
  data = np.fromfile(f, dtype=int, count=cols*rows, sep=" ").reshape((rows,cols))

another way: is working with both python2(e.g. Python 2.7.10) and python3(e.g. Python 3.6.4), as well for complex matrices see the example below (only change int to complex)

with open('in.txt') as f:
   data = []
   cols,rows=list(map(int, f.readline().split()))
   for i in range(0, rows):
      data.append(list(map(int, f.readline().split()[:cols])))
print (data)

I updated the code, this method is working for any number of matrices and any kind of matrices(int,complex,float) in the initial in.txt file.

This program yields matrix multiplication as an application. Is working with python2, in order to work with python3 make the following changes

print to print()

and

print "%7g" %a[i,j],    to     print ("%7g" %a[i,j],end="")

the script:

import numpy as np

def printMatrix(a):
   print ("Matrix["+("%d" %a.shape[0])+"]["+("%d" %a.shape[1])+"]")
   rows = a.shape[0]
   cols = a.shape[1]
   for i in range(0,rows):
      for j in range(0,cols):
         print "%7g" %a[i,j],
      print
   print      

def readMatrixFile(FileName):
   rows,cols=np.fromfile(FileName, dtype=int, count=2, sep=" ")
   a = np.fromfile(FileName, dtype=float, count=rows*cols, sep=" ").reshape((rows,cols))
   return a

def readMatrixFileComplex(FileName):
   data = []
   rows,cols=list(map(int, FileName.readline().split()))
   for i in range(0, rows):
      data.append(list(map(complex, FileName.readline().split()[:cols])))
   a = np.array(data)
   return a

f = open('in.txt')
a=readMatrixFile(f)
printMatrix(a)
b=readMatrixFile(f)
printMatrix(b)
a1=readMatrixFile(f)
printMatrix(a1)
b1=readMatrixFile(f)
printMatrix(b1)
f.close()

print ("matrix multiplication")
c = np.dot(a,b)
printMatrix(c)
c1 = np.dot(a1,b1)
printMatrix(c1)

with open('complex_in.txt') as fid:
  a2=readMatrixFileComplex(fid)
  print(a2)
  b2=readMatrixFileComplex(fid)
  print(b2)

print ("complex matrix multiplication")
c2 = np.dot(a2,b2)
print(c2)
print ("real part of complex matrix")
printMatrix(c2.real)
print ("imaginary part of complex matrix")
printMatrix(c2.imag)

as input file I take in.txt:

4 4
1 1 1 1
2 4 8 16
3 9 27 81
4 16 64 256
4 3
4.02 -3.0 4.0
-13.0 19.0 -7.0
3.0 -2.0 7.0
-1.0 1.0 -1.0
3 4
1 2 -2 0
-3 4 7 2
6 0 3 1
4 2
-1 3
0 9
1 -11
4 -5

and complex_in.txt

3 4
1+1j 2+2j -2-2j 0+0j
-3-3j 4+4j 7+7j 2+2j
6+6j 0+0j 3+3j 1+1j
4 2
-1-1j 3+3j
0+0j 9+9j
1+1j -11-11j
4+4j -5-5j

and the output look like:

Matrix[4][4]
     1      1      1      1
     2      4      8     16
     3      9     27     81
     4     16     64    256

Matrix[4][3]
  4.02     -3      4
   -13     19     -7
     3     -2      7
    -1      1     -1

Matrix[3][4]
     1      2     -2      0
    -3      4      7      2
     6      0      3      1

Matrix[4][2]
    -1      3
     0      9
     1    -11
     4     -5

matrix multiplication
Matrix[4][3]
  -6.98      15       3
 -35.96      70      20
-104.94     189      57
-255.92     420      96

Matrix[3][2]
    -3     43
    18    -60
     1    -20

[[ 1.+1.j  2.+2.j -2.-2.j  0.+0.j]
 [-3.-3.j  4.+4.j  7.+7.j  2.+2.j]
 [ 6.+6.j  0.+0.j  3.+3.j  1.+1.j]]
[[ -1. -1.j   3. +3.j]
 [  0. +0.j   9. +9.j]
 [  1. +1.j -11.-11.j]
 [  4. +4.j  -5. -5.j]]
complex matrix multiplication
[[ 0.  -6.j  0. +86.j]
 [ 0. +36.j  0.-120.j]
 [ 0.  +2.j  0. -40.j]]
real part of complex matrix
Matrix[3][2]
      0       0
      0       0
      0       0

imaginary part of complex matrix
Matrix[3][2]
     -6      86
     36    -120
      2     -40

To make the answer simple here is a program that reads integers from the file and sorting them

f = open("input.txt", 'r')

nums = f.readlines()
nums = [int(i) for i in nums]

After reading each line of the file converting each string to a digit

nums.sort()

Sorting the numbers

f.close()

f = open("input.txt", 'w')
for num in nums:
	f.write("%d\n" %num)

f.close()

Writing them back As easy as that, Hope this helps

The shortest I can think of is:

with open("file") as f:
    (w, h), data = [int(x) for x in f.readline().split()], [int(x) for x in f.read().split()]

You can seperate (w, h) and data if it looks neater.