def input_data(f): f.readline() line = f.readline() while line.startswith('#'): line = f.readline() data = [] while line != "": # Note: this gets rid of the \n at the end of the # line! nums = line.split() int_nums = [] for n in nums: int_nums.append(int(n[:-1])) data.append(int_nums) line = f.readline() return data if __name__ == '__main__': myfile = open('lynx.txt') print input_data(myfile) myfile.close()