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I observed that when exporting a List, no matter if I put "List" or "cvs" the result is always the same: after importing, the data appears with quotations:

   cont1 = {{2, 3}, {3, 4}, {5, 6}};
   cont2 = {{7, 8}, {9, 10}, {11, 12}};
   tosave = {cont1, cont2};

   Export["ContTest.lst", tosave, "List"];
   Export["ContTest.csv", tosave, "csv"];
   asDat = Import["ContTest.lst", "List"]
   asCsv = Import["ContTest.csv", "csv"]

Out[540]= {"{{2, 3}, {3, 4}, {5, 6}}", "{{7, 8}, {9, 10}, {11, 12}}"}

Out[541]= {{"{2, 3}", "{3, 4}", "{5, 6}"}, {"{7, 8}", "{9, 10}", "{11, 12}"}}

The solution I found is to export in ".cvs" format and transform with ToExpression:

     merd = ToExpression@Import["ContTest.csv", "csv"]

Out[520]= {{{2, 3}, {3, 4}, {5, 6}}, {{7, 8}, {9, 10}, {11, 12}}}

How to avoid the quotations when using "List"? Or better, why the list is imported with quotations?

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  • $\begingroup$ It is not clear to my what the question is. Please rephrase it and illustrate it with an example. If something doesn't show, show what you did. $\endgroup$ – Szabolcs May 11 '18 at 14:49
  • $\begingroup$ For example, one can only guess at what you might mean by no matter if I put "List","Data" or whatever. $\endgroup$ – Szabolcs May 11 '18 at 14:49
  • $\begingroup$ I do not see why you need ToExpression here. Even without that, things are okay. To keep things simple, you might want to export in `.m' format. $\endgroup$ – Himalaya Senapati May 11 '18 at 14:56
  • $\begingroup$ I already have a large amount of data exported in "List" format... that´s why I would like to import and recover it in the original format ("List") $\endgroup$ – Juan Manuel Gomba May 11 '18 at 14:59
  • $\begingroup$ @JuanManuelGomba If the format is indeed "List" as you claim, why do you import as "CSV"? Also, it would help to see the problematic data, since, as @HimalaySenapati already pointed out, the example provided works as expected $\endgroup$ – Lukas Lang May 11 '18 at 15:05
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cont = {{2, 3}, {3, 4}, {5, 6}};

Put[cont, cont, "data"]

merd = ReadList["data"]

{{{2, 3}, {3, 4}, {5, 6}}, {{2, 3}, {3, 4}, {5, 6}}}

or if the brackets are included

Put[{cont, cont}, "data"]

merd = Last@ReadList["data"]

{{{2, 3}, {3, 4}, {5, 6}}, {{2, 3}, {3, 4}, {5, 6}}}

merd == {cont, cont}

True

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks Chris, but it does not have the same format as {cont,cont} $\endgroup$ – Juan Manuel Gomba May 11 '18 at 15:26
  • $\begingroup$ @JuanManuelGomba You mean you need the brackets included? Added edit. $\endgroup$ – Chris Degnen May 11 '18 at 15:30
  • $\begingroup$ Great, thanks. Now I see that if I directly write ReadList["ContTest.lst] the list is correctly read. $\endgroup$ – Juan Manuel Gomba May 11 '18 at 16:39
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From Chris Degnen post I find that just doing

  ReadList["ContTest.lst"]

the data is obtained without quotations.

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