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I'm trying to process my bank's data, which is always formed by lines with 5 fields separated by semicolons. Until recently, it used to write the numbers in the "1234,56" format, and I processed them by 

Import[NotebookDirectory[] <> "cc.wri", "Table", 
  "NumberPoint" -> ",", "FieldSeparators" -> {";"}]

Recently the bank started using the "1,234.56" format, and since I prefer to use a single file containing all my transactions history, I am wondering if it is possible to read from a file both type of number formats.

I tried using ToExpression[], but without success, and it seems that NumberPoint doesnt allow for multiple choices

-> fake cc.wri file: https://pastebin.com/MviN6SBC

update: I checked that this works, but still dont know if it's the best way to do it:

a=Import[NotebookDirectory[] <> "cc.wri", "Table", 
      "NumberPoint" -> ",", "FieldSeparators" -> {";"}]
a4 = 
 Map[If[NumberQ[#], #, Internal`StringToDouble[#]] &, 
  a\[Transpose][[4]]]

(Internal``StringToDouble idea from Faster way to convert real strings into numbers)

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  • $\begingroup$ Is it guaranteed that a file won't have a mix of numbers in both formats? $\endgroup$
    – J. M.'s eventual burnout ♦
    Nov 13, 2017 at 14:26
  • $\begingroup$ No - maybe I didnt explain me well - the file will use the first format until a given line, then switch to the second format from then on $\endgroup$
    – alessandro
    Nov 13, 2017 at 14:37
  • $\begingroup$ "until a given line" - would you happen to know how to detect that line? It's hard to discuss possible solutions since you didn't furnish a sample file. $\endgroup$
    – J. M.'s eventual burnout ♦
    Nov 13, 2017 at 14:42
  • $\begingroup$ I added a simple fake file - in any case I wonder if it is possible to have both number formats detected in general, wherever they appear in the file $\endgroup$
    – alessandro
    Nov 13, 2017 at 14:52

1 Answer 1

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You might Import the whole file as text, do a string replacement like this,

StringReplace["1,234.56  1.234,56" ,
  d : ((DigitCharacter | "." | "," ) ..) ~~ ("." | ",") ~~
   c : (DigitCharacter ~~ DigitCharacter) ~~ (EndOfString | 
     Except[DigitCharacter]) :>
  StringReplace[d, {"." -> "", "," -> ""}] <> "." <> c]

1234.56 1234.56

then ImportString the result..

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