[SciPy-user] Sort by first n columns in an array

[Dharhas Pothina]

Hi,

I am reading in an array with np.genfromtxt and I need to sort it by the first 6 columns (ie year,month etc). I do not know the number of column before reading the array in. 

>From the documentation for sorting it looks like I can use the 'order' keyword to do what I need if I have a structured array with names for each column. I haven't been able to work out how to convert the array I have to an ordered array though. Also as far as I can tell I can't set the dtype with field names in np.genfromtxt without previously knowing the number of columns in the data file.

I don't want to use the timeseries toolkit for this since it is on a machine that hasn't got that package installed.

I know I must be missing something simple. Any help is appreciated.

- dharhas