Your input data file must be formatted in such a way that the program, knowing the format, can separate one number from another. There are two basic ways to do this.
1. Separate the numbers with non-digit characters, such as spaces. (Other characters such as commas are also used, but are more trouble when your data is just numbers.) 2. Put each number in a particular set of columns. The columns make a *field*. If the numbers in a field will be greater than 9, then your field needs more than one column. For input to Python, numbers that do not require all the columns in the field should be padded with leading spaces rather than leading zeros. Example with 3 fields, with the second needing 2 columns. xyyz 1102 # 1 10 2 4 53 # 4 5 3 etc This usually requires an editor with fixed-pitch fonts. And you have to tell the program the position of each field. Unless you have enough fields or enough lines that you actually need to save display or disk space, I would stick with the first option. Terry J. Reedy -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
