MATHEMATICA IMPORT/EXPORT FORMAT

List

Column of numbers or strings.
Stores a list of numbers or strings as lines.
Plain text format.
Is essentially a single-column version of the "Table" format.

Import and Export provide various data conversion and formatting options for storing lists of numbers or strings.
Import automatically recognizes common number formats, including C and Fortran notations.
Numbers without decimal points are imported as integers.

Import and Export Import and Export

Import["file", "List"] imports a text file, returning each line as a string or a number.
Export["file", list, "List"] writes any list as a column of numbers or strings.
Import["file", "List"] returns a list of strings or numbers, each representing a line of file.
Export["file", list, "List"] exports list as a column, writing the CForm of each element as a separate line.
Import["file", {"List", elem} ] imports the specified element from a file.
Import["file", {"List", elem, sub_a, sub_b, ...}] imports a subelement.
Import["file", {"List", {elem₁, elem₂, ...}}] imports multiple elements.
The format must be explicitly given.
Export["file", expr, {"List", elem}] creates a file by treating expr as specifying element elem.
Export["file", {expr₁, expr₂, ...}, {"List", {elem₁, elem₂, ...}}] treats each as specifying the corresponding .
Export["file", expr, "List", opt₁->val₁, ...] exports expr with the specified option elements taken to have the specified values.
Export["file", {elem₁->expr₁, elem₂->expr₂, ...}, {"List", "Rules"}] uses rules to specify the elements to be exported.
See the reference pages for full general information on Import and Export.
ImportString and ExportString support the format.

Elements Elements

General Import elements:

	"Elements"	list of elements and options available in this file
	"Rules"	full list of rules for each element and option
	"Options"	list of rules for options, properties, and settings

Data representation elements:
"Data" list of numbers or strings, each representing a line

"Grid" list data as a Grid object
Import and Export use the element by default.

Options Options

General Export options:
Alignment None how data is aligned within table columns

CharacterEncoding "UTF8" raw character encoding used in the file
Possible settings for Alignment are None, Left, Center, and Right.
General Import option:
CharacterEncoding "ASCII" raw character encoding used in the file
Import and Export option:
"EmptyField" "" how to represent empty fields
Import options:

"CurrencyTokens"	{{"$", "", "", ""}, {"c", "", "p", "F"}}	currency units to be skipped when importing numerical values
"DateStringFormat"	None	date format, given as a DateString specification
"IgnoreEmptyLines"	False	whether to ignore empty lines
"LineSeparators"	{"\r\n","\n","\r"}	string tokens taken to separate list elements
"Numeric"	True	whether to import data fields as numbers if possible
"NumberPoint"	"."	string to use for a decimal point
"NumberSigns"	{"-","+"}	strings to use for signs of negative and positive numbers
"HeaderLines"	0	number of lines to skip at the beginning of the file

Import converts table entries formatted as specified by the option to a DateList representation of the form .
Empty lines and lines containing only whitespace characters are converted to an empty string by default. With set to True, Import will skip empty lines.
With "Numeric"->False, numbers will be imported as strings in the form they appear in the file.
All common conventions for the encoding of newline characters are recognized with the default setting of .