title: SQLite or flat text file?
body: <p>I process a lot of text/data that I exchange between Python, R, and sometimes Matlab.</p>
  
  <p>My go-to is the flat text file, but also use SQLite occasionally to store the data and access from each program (not Matlab yet though). I don't use GROUPBY, AVG, etc. in SQL as much as I do these operations in R, so I don't necessarily require the database operations.</p>
  
  <p>For such applications that requires exchanging data among programs to make use of available libraries in each language, is there a good rule of thumb on which data exchange format/method to use (even XML or NetCDF or HDF5)?</p>
  
  <p>I know between Python -> R there is rpy or rpy2 but I was wondering about this question in a more general sense - I use many computers which all don't have rpy2 and also use a few other pieces of scientific analysis software that require access to the data at various times (the stages of processing and analysis are also separated).</p>