Parse a multi-line string into an array - julia

Question

I'm trying to get my head around Julia, coming from Python. Currently working through some Project Euler problems I've solved using Python in Julia to get a better feeling for the language. One thing that I do a lot (in Project Euler and in real life) is to parse a big multiline data object into an array. For example, if I have the data
data = """1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 0 1 2"""
In python I might do
def parse(input):
output = []
for line in input.splitlines():
output.append(map(int,line.split()))
return np.array(output)
Here's what I have so far in Julia:
function parse(input)
nrow = ncol = 0
# Count first
for row=split(input,'\n')
nrow += 1
ncol = max(ncol,length(split(row)))
end
output = zeros(Int64,(nrow,ncol))
for (i,row) in enumerate(split(input,'\n'))
for (j,word) in enumerate(split(row))
output[i,j] = int(word)
end
end
return output
end
What's the Julia version of "pythonic" called? Whatever it is, I don't think I'm doing it. I'm pretty sure there's a way to (1) not have to pass through the data twice, (2) not have to be so specific about allocating the array. I've tried hcat/vcat a little, without luck.
I'd welcome suggestions for solving this. I'd also be interested in references to proper Julia style (julia-onic?), and general language usage practices. Thanks!

Answer 1

readdlm is really useful here. See the docs for all the options, but here's an example.
julia> data="1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 0 1 2"
"1 2 3 4\n5 6 7 8\n9 0 1 2"
julia> readdlm(IOBuffer(data))
3x4 Array{Float64,2}:
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0
9.0 0.0 1.0 2.0
julia> readdlm(IOBuffer(data),Int)
3x4 Array{Int32,2}:
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 0 1 2