List

Import and Export provide various data conversion and formatting options for storing lists of numbers or strings.
Import automatically recognizes common number formats, including C and Fortran notations.
Numbers without decimal points are imported as integers.

Background & Context

- Column of numbers or strings.
- Stores a list of numbers or strings as lines.
- Plain text format.
- Is essentially a single-column version of the "Table" format.

Import["file","List"] imports a text file, returning each line as a string or a number.
Export["file",list,"List"] writes any list as a column of numbers or strings.
Import["file","List"] returns a list of strings or numbers, each representing a line of file.
Export["file",list,"List"] exports list as a column, writing the CForm of each element as a separate line.
Import["file",{"List",elem} ] imports the specified element from a "List" file.
Import["file",{"List",elem,sub_a,sub_b,…}] imports a subelement.
Import["file",{"List",{elem₁,elem₂,…}}] imports multiple elements.
The format "List" must be explicitly given.
Export["file",expr, {"List",elem}] creates a "List" file by treating expr as specifying element elem.
Export["file",{expr₁,expr₂,…},{"List",{elem₁,elem₂,…}}] treats each expr_i as specifying the corresponding elem_i.
Export["file",expr,"List",opt₁->val₁,…] exports expr with the specified option elements taken to have the specified values.
Export["file",{elem₁->expr₁,elem₂->expr₂,…},{"List","Rules"}] uses rules to specify the elements to be exported.
See the following reference pages for full general information:

	Import, Export	import from or export to a file
	CloudImport, CloudExport	import from or export to a cloud object
	ImportString, ExportString	import from or export to a string
	ImportByteArray, ExportByteArray	import from or export to a byte array

General Import elements:
"Elements" list of elements and options available in this file

"Summary" summary of the file

"Rules" list of rules for all available elements
Data representation elements:
"Data" list of numbers or strings, each representing a line

"Grid" list data as a Grid object
Import and Export use the "Data" element by default.

CharacterEncoding	"ISOLatin1"	raw character encoding used in the file
"CurrencyTokens"	{{"$", "", "", ""}, {"c", "", "p", "F"}}	currency units to be skipped when importing numerical values
"DateStringFormat"	None	date format, given as a DateString specification
"HeaderLines"	0	number of lines to skip at the beginning of the file
"IgnoreEmptyLines"	False	whether to ignore empty lines
"LineSeparators"	{"∖r\n","∖n","\r"}	string tokens taken to separate list elements
"NumberPoint"	"."	string to use for a decimal point
"NumberSigns"	{"-","+"}	strings to use for signs of negative and positive numbers
"Numeric"	True	whether to import data fields as numbers if possible

With CharacterEncoding -> Automatic, Import will attempt to infer the character encoding of the file.
Import converts table entries formatted as specified by the "DateStringFormat" option to a DateList representation of the form {y,m,d,h,m,s}.
Empty lines and lines containing only whitespace characters are converted to an empty string by default. With "IgnoreEmptyLines" set to True, Import will skip empty lines.
With "Numeric"->False, numbers will be imported as strings in the form they appear in the file.
All common conventions for the encoding of newline characters are recognized with the default setting of "LineSeparators".
General Export options:
Alignment None how data is aligned within table columns

CharacterEncoding "UTF8" raw character encoding used in the file
Possible settings for Alignment are None, Left, Center, and Right.