How to preserve column names while importing data using numpy?

Question

I am using the numpy library in Python to import CSV file data into a ndarray as follows:

data = np.genfromtxt('mydata.csv', 
                     delimiter='\,', dtype=None, names=True)

The result provides the following column names:

print(data.dtype.names)

('row_label',
 'MyDataColumn1_0',
 'MyDataColumn1_1')

The original column names are:

row_label, My-Data-Column-1.0, My-Data-Column-1.1

It appears that NumPy is forcing my column names to adopt C-style variable name formatting. Yet there are many cases where my Python scripts require access to columns according to column name, so I need to ensure that column names remain constant. To accomplish this either NumPy needs to preserve the original column names or else I need to convert my column names to the format NumPy is using.

• Is there a way to preserve the original column names during import?

• If not, is there an easy way to convert column labels to use the format NumPy is using, preferably using some NumPy function?

Answer 1

if you set names=True, then the first line of your data file is passed through this function:

validate_names = NameValidator(excludelist=excludelist,
                               deletechars=deletechars,
                               case_sensitive=case_sensitive,
                               replace_space=replace_space)

These are those options that you can supply:

excludelist : sequence, optional
    A list of names to exclude. This list is appended to the default list
    ['return','file','print']. Excluded names are appended an underscore:
    for example, `file` would become `file_`.
deletechars : str, optional
    A string combining invalid characters that must be deleted from the
    names.
defaultfmt : str, optional
    A format used to define default field names, such as "f%i" or "f_%02i".
autostrip : bool, optional
    Whether to automatically strip white spaces from the variables.
replace_space : char, optional
    Character(s) used in replacement of white spaces in the variables
    names. By default, use a '_'.

Perhaps you could try to supply your own deletechars string that is an empty string. But you'd be better off modifying and passing this:

defaultdeletechars = set("""~!@#$%^&*()-=+~\|]}[{';: /?.>,<""")

Just take out the period and minus sign from that set, and pass it as:

np.genfromtxt(..., names=True, deletechars="""~!@#$%^&*()=+~\|]}[{';: /?>,<""")

Here's the source: https://github.com/numpy/numpy/blob/master/numpy/lib/_iotools.py#l245