title: Reading data in python pandas by defining width of each column as number of characters
body: <p>I'm trying to read a file in which columns are separated by variable spaces. I was wondering if there is a way to read the file by defining the width of each column in terms of number of characters reserved for that column.</p>
  
  <p>For example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>A B          C  D
  - ---------- -- ---
  1 foo        32 9.5
  4 bar           5.4
  5 foofoo_bar 44 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Let's say we have to read the above data. Notice that some entries do not exist in columns C and D. However, note that the second line in the file (the one with the dashes) indicates the maximum number of characters that particular column can have.</p>
  
  <p>So, the question is given the maximum width of each column in the dataset, is there a way to read the dataset in python using pandas or any other package?</p>