Import attempts to give a Mathematica expression whose meaning is as close as possible to the data in the external file.
Import can handle textual and tabular data, as well as graphics and sounds.
Lines and Words return lists of Mathematica strings. List returns a list of Mathematica numbers or strings. Table returns a list of lists of Mathematica numbers or strings. Numbers without explicit decimal points are returned as exact integers. In Table format, columns can be separated by spaces or tabs.