Struggling with list from datafile

Questions
1

I got a list from a datafile:

ctxt = Flatten[ StringSplit[Import["d.txt", "Data"], ","]];

Then I got every third number:

lst3 = ctxt[[3 ;; ;; 3]];

When “looked” at lst3 in an outcell it looked like a list of numbers {79, 2, 8, 54 …}

But it is actually a list of strings: {“79”, “2”, “8”, “54” …}

It took me a long time to make this realization and to fix my code:

lst3 = ToExpression /@ ctxt[[3 ;; ;; 3]];

What is going on? Why does the outcell “look” incorrect?

Thanks in advance

2

Strings are always displayed without quotes in output cells (this could be customized by setting ShowStringCharacters → True in the stylesheet).

3

Thanks Ilian. Makes sense.