DEPR: pd.read_table

- pd.read_table is deprecated and replaced by pd.read_csv.
- added whatsnew note

doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.0.txt

@@ -319,6 +319,7 @@ Deprecations
 - :meth:`DataFrame.to_stata`, :meth:`read_stata`, :class:`StataReader` and :class:`StataWriter` have deprecated the ``encoding`` argument.  The encoding of a Stata dta file is determined by the file type and cannot be changed (:issue:`21244`).
 - :meth:`MultiIndex.to_hierarchical` is deprecated and will be removed in a future version  (:issue:`21613`)
 - :meth:`Series.ptp` is deprecated. Use ``numpy.ptp`` instead (:issue:`21614`)
+- :func:`pandas.read_table` is deprecated. Use ``pandas.read_csv`` instead (:issue:`21948`)
 -
 
 .. _whatsnew_0240.prior_deprecations:

pandas/io/parsers.py

@@ -326,6 +326,10 @@
 """ % (_parser_params % (_sep_doc.format(default="','"), _engine_doc))
 
 _read_table_doc = """
+
+.. deprecated:: 0.24.0
+   Use :func:`pandas.read_csv` instead, passing `sep='\t'` if necessary.
+
 Read general delimited file into DataFrame
 
 %s
@@ -606,6 +610,16 @@ def parser_f(filepath_or_buffer,
                  memory_map=False,
                  float_precision=None):
 
+        if name == "read_table":
+            if sep == None and delimiter == None:
+                warnings.warn("read_table is deprecated, use read_csv with "
+                              "sep='\\t' instead.",
+                              FutureWarning, stacklevel=2)
+                sep = '\t'
+            else:
+                warnings.warn("read_table is deprecated, use read_csv instead.",
+                              FutureWarning, stacklevel=2)
+
         # Alias sep -> delimiter.
         if delimiter is None:
             delimiter = sep
@@ -685,7 +699,7 @@ def parser_f(filepath_or_buffer,
 read_csv = _make_parser_function('read_csv', sep=',')
 read_csv = Appender(_read_csv_doc)(read_csv)
 
-read_table = _make_parser_function('read_table', sep='\t')
+read_table = _make_parser_function('read_table', sep=None)
 read_table = Appender(_read_table_doc)(read_table)