Reading an exported List

Question

I have exported a list of 2d coordinates as a List:

Export["F:\\coordinates.dat", coordinates, "List"];

You can access the data here: http://pastebin.com/wFSt9DiD

Now I would like to read the coordinates back with:

coordinates = Import["F:\\coordinates.dat", "List"];

So far this works.

But, when I want to plot the data with ListPlot the plot is empty.

When I try Flatten[coordinates], the coordinates remain unchanged.

It seems that the imported data is imported as a text list.

How can I access the data in the list?

Answer 1

The problem is that the imported "List" objects are all strings,

First@Import["http://pastebin.com/raw/wFSt9DiD", "List"]
(* "{1057.9074074074074, 1045.9222222222222}" *)

So you need to apply ToExpression to get them evaluated,

ListPlot[ToExpression /@ 
  Import["http://pastebin.com/raw/wFSt9DiD", "List"]]

I think, if possible, you are better off exporting your data as a "Table", and then you won't run into this problem

Export["test.dat", 
 ToExpression /@ 
  Import["http://pastebin.com/raw/wFSt9DiD", "List"], "Table"]

and the result is here. You can import it without any hassle now:

ListPlot[Import["http://pastebin.com/raw/ieqin04f"]]