Get the column names of a python numpy ndarray

Question

Let's say I have a data file called data.txt that looks like:

TIME FX FY FZ
0    10 5  6
1    2  4  7
2    5  2  6
...

In python run:

import numpy as np

myData = np.genfromtxt("data.txt", names=True)

>>> print myData["TIME"]
[0, 1, 2]

The names at the top of my data file will vary, so what I would like to do is find out what the names of my arrays in the data file are. So I would like something like:

>>> print myData.names
[TIME, F0, F1, F2]

I thought about just to read in the data file and get the first line and parse it as a separate operation, but that doesn't seem very efficient or elegant.

Answer 1

Try:

myData.dtype.names

This will return a tuple of the field names.

In [10]: myData.dtype.names
Out[10]: ('TIME', 'FX', 'FY', 'FZ')