Python: Read CSV file into array

gistfile1.py

def readcsv(filename):	
    ifile = open(filename, "rU")
    reader = csv.reader(ifile, delimiter=";")

    rownum = 0	
    a = []

    for row in reader:
        a.append (row)
        rownum += 1
    
    ifile.close()
    return a

@TheTrueDM its universal newlines mode. I think it allows each new line in a csv to be a separate item in the reader/ifile array. So basically it will recognize the following character sequences as new lines.:
Unix end-of-line convention '\n', the Windows convention '\r\n', and the old Macintosh convention '\r'

Note: Its been deprecated from python 3.4+, will be removed in python 4 (There's a python 4??)
See:
https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html (use find 'U' on your browser to see the relevant section
https://docs.python.org/3/glossary.html#term-universal-newlines

I think a better way would be to use Pandas using the following function:
def readcsv(filename):
data = pd.read_csv(filename) #Please add four spaces here before this line
return(np.array(data)) #Please add four spaces here before this line

yourArray = readcsv(yourFilename)
Good Luck!

This reads each row as a string.