Here is another suggestion:
col = 2 # third column
filename = '4columns.txt'
third_column = [line[:-1].split('\t')[col] for line in open(filename,
'r')]third_column now contains a list of items in the third column. This solution is great for small files (up to a couple of thousand of lines). For larger file, performance could be a problem, so you might need a different solution. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
