remove string from text file keep float

Question

I'm looking to remove lines with strings or empty lines in a text file. It looks like this. As you can see the header repeat it self throught the file. The numbers of lines with data vary from each block. I need it to import as an array in numpy. At first I had comma for decimal point at least I was able to change that.

I tried this but it doesn't work at all:

from types import StringType

z = open('D:\Desktop\cycle 1-20 20-50 kPa (dot).dat', 'r')
for line in z.readlines():
    for x in z:
        if type(z.readline(x)) is StringType:
            print line


z.close()

Example of data:

bla bla

cyclical stuff                      Time:   81.095947   Sec 2012-08-02 17:05:42
stored :    1   cycle           stores for :    62  seg-cycle
Points :    4223
Servo_Hyd count Temps   Servo_Air pressure  Servo_Hyd load Servo_Hyd LVDT1  Servo_Hyd LVDT2 Servo_Hyd LVDT3
name1    name1    name1 name1   name1   name1   name1
1   60.102783   0.020013755 89.109558   0.3552089   0.4015148   -0.33822596
1   60.107666   0.020006953 89.025749   0.35519764  0.4015218   -0.33821729
1   60.112549   0.02000189  88.886292   0.3551946   0.4015184   -0.33822691
1   60.117432   0.020007374 89.559196   0.35519707  0.40151948  -0.33823174
1   60.122314   0.019991774 89.741402   0.35519552  0.40151322  -0.33822927
1   60.127197   0.020003742 89.748924   0.35520011  0.40150556  -0.33822462

bla bla

cyclical stuff                      Time:   81.095947   Sec 2012-08-02 17:05:42
stored :    1   cycle           stores for :    62  seg-cycle
Points :    4223
Servo_Hyd count Temps   Servo_Air pressure  Servo_Hyd load Servo_Hyd LVDT1  Servo_Hyd LVDT2 Servo_Hyd LVDT3
name1    name1    name1 name1   name1   name1   name1
1   60.102783   0.020013755 89.109558   0.3552089   0.4015148   -0.33822596
1   60.107666   0.020006953 89.025749   0.35519764  0.4015218   -0.33821729
1   60.112549   0.02000189  88.886292   0.3551946   0.4015184   -0.33822691
1   60.117432   0.020007374 89.559196   0.35519707  0.40151948  -0.33823174
1   60.122314   0.019991774 89.741402   0.35519552  0.40151322  -0.33822927
1   60.127197   0.020003742 89.748924   0.35520011  0.40150556  -0.33822462

Answer 1

Python will read all file elements as strings initially unless you cast them, so your method won't work.

Your best bet is probably to use a regular expression to filter out lines with non-data characters in them.

f = open("datafile")
for line in f:
  #Catch everything that has a non-number/space in it
  if re.search("[^-0-9.\s]",line): 
     continue
  # Catch empty lines
  if len(line.strip()) == 0:
     continue
  # Keep the rest
  print(line)

f.close()