docs: def _readFile(self, fname, sldir):
          '''
          private method that reads in and organizes the .DAT file
          Loads the data of the .DAT File into the variables cattrs and cols.
          In both these cases they are dictionaries, but in the case of cols,
          it is a dictionary of numpy array exect for the element ,
          element_name where it is just a list
  
          '''
          cattrs=[]
          if sldir.endswith(os.sep):
              #Making sure fname will be formatted correctly
              fname = str(sldir)+str(fname)
          else:
              fname = str(sldir)+os.sep+str(fname)
              self.sldir+=os.sep
          f=open(fname,'r')
          lines=f.readlines()
          for i in range(len(lines)):
              lines[i]=lines[i].strip()
  
  
          cols=lines[0].strip('H')
          cols=cols.strip()
          cols=cols.split()
          for i in range(len(lines)):
              if lines[i].startswith('#'):
                  # if it is a cycle attribute line
                  lines[i]=lines[i].strip('#')
                  tmp=lines[i].split()
                  tmp1=[]
                  for j in range(len(tmp)):
                      if tmp[j] != '=' or '':
                          tmp1.append(tmp[j])
                  tmp=tmp1
  
                  j=0
                  while j <len(tmp):
                      cattrs.append(tmp[j])
                      j+=2
  
  
              elif not lines[i].startswith('H'):
                  index = i-1
                  break
  
  
          return cattrs,cols, index