problem solved solution was had to use "readlines()" not "read()"
thanks Niphlod Here's working result def import_a_tab_file(): tabbed_file = open(os.path.join(request.folder,'static','city.txt')).readlines() for line in tabbed_file: splitted = line.split('\t') db.TempCity.insert(geoNamesID = splitted[0], cityName = splitted[1], asciiCityName = splitted[2], alternativeNames = splitted[3], latitude = splitted[4], longitude = splitted[5], featureClass = splitted[6], featureCode = splitted[7], countryCode = splitted[8], altCountryCode = splitted[9], admin1Code = splitted[10], admin2Code = splitted[11], admin3Code = splitted[12], admin4Code = splitted[13], population = splitted[14], elevation = splitted[15], dem = splitted[16], timeZone = splitted[17], geoNamesModDate = splitted[18]) return locals() -- Resources: - http://web2py.com - http://web2py.com/book (Documentation) - http://github.com/web2py/web2py (Source code) - https://code.google.com/p/web2py/issues/list (Report Issues) --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "web2py-users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to web2py+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.