title: Numpy loadtxt: ValueError: Wrong number of columns
body: <p>Having the file TEST.txt structured as following:</p>
  
  <pre><code>a   45
  b   45  55
  c   66
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I try to open it:</p>
  
  <pre><code>import numpy as np
  a= np.loadtxt(r'TEST.txt',delimiter='\t',dtype=str)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I have got the following error:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>ValueError: Wrong number of columns at line 2</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>It's clearly due to the fact that the second line has three columns instead of two, but I can't find an answer to my problem using the documentation.</p>
  
  <p>Is there anyway I can fix it keeping all the data into an array?</p>
  
  <p>In Matlab I can do something like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>a=textscan(fopen('TEST.txt'),'%s%s%s');
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Something similar in Python would be apreciated.</p>