import numpy

a = numpy.array([1,2])

a[:,0]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 IndexError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-3-ed371621c46c> in <module>()
----> 1 a[:,0]

IndexError: too many indices

np.loadtxt(F, skiprows=0, ndmin=2)

>>> a = np.array([0,1,2])
>>> a.shape
(3,)
>>> a_row = a[None,:]
>>> a_row.shape
(1,3)
>>> a_col = a[:,None]
>>> a_col.shape
(3,1)

>>> arr=np.genfromtxt('file',names=['a','b'],dtype='f4,f4')
>>> if (np.size(arr) == 1): arr.shape=1

>>> for i in range(np.size(arr)): print arr['a'][i]