Suggestions for passing large table between Python and C#

Question

I have a C# application that needs to be run several thousand times. Currently it precomputes a large table of constant values at the start of the run for reference. As these values will be the same from run to run I would like to compute them independently in a simple python script and then just have the C# app import the file at the start of each run.

The table consists of a sorted 2D array (500-3000+ rows/columns) of simple (int x, double y) tuples. I am looking for recommendations concerning the best/simplest way to store and then import this data. For example, I could store the data in a text file like this "(x1,y1)|(x2,y2)|(x3,y3)|...|(xn,yn)" This seems like a very ugly solution to a problem that seems to lend itself to a specific data structure or library I am currently unaware of. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Answer 1

I would go for a simplified csv file. Given that all your values are numbers, you can read them in C# using

File.ReadAllText(filename).Split(',')

You can find more C# options for csv here

On Python you can use the csv module to read and write them. Better explanation here, but the short of it is

import csv
writer = csv.writer(filename)
writer.writerows(data)

Using CSV also gives you flexibility for future improvements, as well as exporting and importing from other programs like Excel for further processing.

Answer 2

You may consider running IronPython - then you can pass values back and forth across C#/Python