# More control over writedlm formatting

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/more-control-over-writedlm-formatting/2840>\
**Category:** Internals & Design\
**Tags:** proposal\
**Created:** [March 23, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/more-control-over-writedlm-formatting/2840 "2017-03-23T17:45:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![strickek](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/strickek/32/14885_2.png) [@strickek](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/strickek)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 6:34am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/more-control-over-writedlm-formatting/2840/22 "2017-04-20T06:34:09Z")

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I like readdlm() and writedlm() because it is easy for starting with Julia and arays. And the functions are used in a lot of examples, packages.

For decimal comma I wrote a packages (“ReadWriteDlm2”) which also use this functionality and sytax: [https://github.com/strickek/ReadWriteDlm2.jl](https://github.com/strickek/ReadWriteDlm2.jl)

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**Author:** ![juliohm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/juliohm/32/215266_2.png) [@juliohm](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/juliohm)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2017, 1:39am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/more-control-over-writedlm-formatting/2840/23 "2017-08-10T01:39:49Z")

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I personally find the idea of having `readdlm` and `writedlm` in Base working nicely with `Matrix{<:Number}` great. I don’t want to install a bunch of dependencies for saving the most simple built-in scientific type in a language. Arrays of numbers are everywhere, we just need a formatting option in these \*dlm functions and everyone will be happy.

If on the other hand, someone needs more fancy control other than formatting like Nullable handling, etc, then a package makes sense.

[Previous page](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/more-control-over-writedlm-formatting/2840.md?page=1)