How to separate data into individual columns.

[Yifei]

Hello,

I have a set of data that looks like this:

044717.50-690930.3 -0.236
....
....

I want to be able to separate the data into just
044717.50 and 690930.3, ignoring the -0.236.

I'm not really sure how to approach this problem as I am a beginner in Python usage.

If it is possible, can you guys help me started with a sample code? Thanks so much!

[bvdet]

That can easily be done like this:

>>> s = '044717.50-690930.3    -0.236\n'
>>> values = [item.strip() for item in s.split('-')][:2]
>>> values
['044717.50', '690930.3']
>>>

I am assuming the dash character will always be there to split the string into individual numbers. They are still strings, so you can type cast them to float if needed.

[float(item.strip()) for item in s.split('-')][:2]