Reading a text file into a 2D array in Python
<p>I am trying to extract data from a text file and place it into a 2D array where the columns are organized by what value they represent so I can plot the data and analyze it. The data in the text file is formatted like</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>10.24284  49.89447    462.90  312.4   Wed Dec 7, 2016 6:42:10p EST</p>
</blockquote>

<p>I want to be able to separate the values in each column into their own lists or a full 2D array. I have tried looking into <code>open('filename')</code> as well as <code>readlines</code> but it just returns a mess of numbers that are not sorted in any way. What is the best solution to the problem?</p>