I'm using [msgfile] to read a text file line by line while a MIDI song is playing. The text file contains five columns with numbers. I need to extract the maximum value from each column in the text file, from the start of the patch (before all lines are read in, as it looks now). how do I do that?

Thank you!

Probably the ZL family of objects will help. [zl slice] [zl iter] that kind of thing.

This is how I'd try it: (see attached patch)

(I just discovered the list-abs library a few days ago, and it turns out to be rather useful).

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/column2list.pd

Thank you for your replies! They were helpful