Adding Header to Numpy array

Question

I have an array I would like to add a header for.

This is what i have now:

0.0,1.630000e+01,1.990000e+01,1.840000e+01
1.0,1.630000e+01,1.990000e+01,1.840000e+01
2.0,1.630000e+01,1.990000e+01,1.840000e+01

This is what i want:

SP,1,2,3
0.0,1.630000e+01,1.990000e+01,1.840000e+01
1.0,1.630000e+01,1.990000e+01,1.840000e+01
2.0,1.630000e+01,1.990000e+01,1.840000e+01

Notes: "SP" will always be 1st followed by the numbering of the columns which may vary

here is my existing code:

fmt = ",".join(["%s"] + ["%10.6e"] * (my_array.shape[1]-1))

np.savetxt('final.csv', my_array, fmt=fmt,delimiter=",")

Answer 1

Ever since Numpy 1.7.0, three parameters have been added to numpy.savetxt for exactly this purpose: header, footer and comments. So the code to do as you wanted can easily be written as:

import numpy
a = numpy.array([[0.0,1.630000e+01,1.990000e+01,1.840000e+01],
                 [1.0,1.630000e+01,1.990000e+01,1.840000e+01],
                 [2.0,1.630000e+01,1.990000e+01,1.840000e+01]])
fmt = ",".join(["%s"] + ["%10.6e"] * (a.shape[1]-1))
numpy.savetxt("temp", a, fmt=fmt, header="SP,1,2,3", comments='')

Answer 2

Note: this answer was written for an older version of numpy, relevant when the question was written. With modern numpy, makhlaghi's answer provides a more elegant solution.

Since numpy.savetxt can also write to file objects, you can open the file youself and write your header before the data:

import numpy
a = numpy.array([[0.0,1.630000e+01,1.990000e+01,1.840000e+01],
                 [1.0,1.630000e+01,1.990000e+01,1.840000e+01],
                 [2.0,1.630000e+01,1.990000e+01,1.840000e+01]])
fmt = ",".join(["%s"] + ["%10.6e"] * (a.shape[1]-1))

# numpy.savetxt, at least as of numpy 1.6.2, writes bytes
# to file, which doesn't work with a file open in text mode.  To
# work around this deficiency, open the file in binary mode, and
# write out the header as bytes.
with open('final.csv', 'wb') as f:
  f.write(b'SP,1,2,3\n')
  #f.write(bytes("SP,"+lists+"\n","UTF-8"))
  #Used this line for a variable list of numbers
  numpy.savetxt(f, a, fmt=fmt, delimiter=",")