numpy.fromfile()

Construct an array from data in a text or binary file.

A highly efficient way of reading binary data with a known data-type, as well as parsing simply formatted text files. Data written using the tofile method can be read using this function.

Notes

Do not rely on the combination of tofile and fromfile for data storage, as the binary files generated are are not platform independent. In particular, no byte-order or data-type information is saved. Data can be stored in the platform independent .npy format using save and load instead.

Examples

Construct an ndarray:

>>> dt = np.dtype([('time', [('min', int), ('sec', int)]),
...                ('temp', float)])
>>> x = np.zeros((1,), dtype=dt)
>>> x['time']['min'] = 10; x['temp'] = 98.25
>>> x
array([((10, 0), 98.25)],
      dtype=[('time', [('min', '<i4'), ('sec', '<i4')]), ('temp', '<f8')])

Save the raw data to disk:

>>> import os
>>> fname = os.tmpnam()
>>> x.tofile(fname)

Read the raw data from disk:

>>> np.fromfile(fname, dtype=dt)
array([((10, 0), 98.25)],
      dtype=[('time', [('min', '<i4'), ('sec', '<i4')]), ('temp', '<f8')])

The recommended way to store and load data:

>>> np.save(fname, x)
>>> np.load(fname + '.npy')
array([((10, 0), 98.25)],
      dtype=[('time', [('min', '<i4'), ('sec', '<i4')]), ('temp', '<f8')])