Using Python to replace MATLAB: how to import data?

There are probably hundreds of ways you could import text data into Python.

But since you want to replace MATLAB, you're going be using NumPy and probably SciPy.

Keep things simple: use NumPy's standard text-loading:

import numpy
imported_array = numpy.loadtxt('file.txt',delimiter='\t')  # Assuming tab-delimiter
print imported_array.shape