# Alternatives to DataFrames.readtable?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/alternatives-to-dataframes-readtable/15414>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [September 24, 2018, 5:10am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/alternatives-to-dataframes-readtable/15414 "2018-09-24T05:10:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![danielc](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/danielc/32/220_2.png) [@danielc](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/danielc)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 5:10am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/alternatives-to-dataframes-readtable/15414/1 "2018-09-24T05:10:36Z")

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I know that DataFrames.readtable is being depracated but the new CSV.read does not work for me. I have to read fixed-column width data, like this:

```julia
    Time (years) a e i peri node M mass     
          0.0000000 3.00000 0.050000 1.0000 226.0000 18.0000 259.0000 1.000000E-03
       1000.0000000 2.97875 0.078517 0.3972 99.0831 249.7255 231.2168 1.000000E-03
       1999.9999997 2.98094 0.113592 0.9031 296.3859 128.8332 235.2106 1.000000E-03
       2999.9999996 2.92248 0.121087 1.9000 246.4872 47.8044 316.7246 1.000000E-03
       4000.0000006 2.92469 0.107297 1.9323 50.0935 2.5184 216.6421 1.000000E-03
       5000.0000015 2.93979 0.106321 1.6020 31.8273 321.6915 104.4990 1.000000E-03
       6000.0000024 2.91009 0.062727 0.9986 344.8856 277.3698 320.8678 1.000000E-03
...

```

CSV.read cannot handle this because this is not a CSV file. The old DataFrames.readtable could handle the idea of data columns being separated by any number of spaces. Is this functionality just gone forever? Do I have to roll my own parser using readline, split, and parse?

Daniel.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![quinnj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/quinnj/32/11_2.png) [@quinnj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/quinnj)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 5:38am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/alternatives-to-dataframes-readtable/15414/2 "2018-09-24T05:38:14Z")

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On CSV master, you can do `CSV.read(file; delim=" ", ignorerepeated=true)`. New release w/ this functionality is coming in a few days.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![danielc](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/danielc/32/220_2.png) [@danielc](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/danielc)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 5:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/alternatives-to-dataframes-readtable/15414/3 "2018-09-24T05:43:01Z")

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Thanks!