diff --git a/src/nmreval/io/asciireader.py b/src/nmreval/io/asciireader.py
index 04fd19e..e2c0464 100644
--- a/src/nmreval/io/asciireader.py
+++ b/src/nmreval/io/asciireader.py
@@ -49,10 +49,8 @@ class AsciiReader:
         with self.fname.open('r') as f:
             for i, line in enumerate(islice(f, len(self.header)+len(self.lines), num_lines)):
                 line = line.rstrip('\n\t\r, ')
-
-                is_empty = len(line) == 0
-
                 line = re.split(r'[\s,;]', line)
+
                 try:
                     comment_start = line.index('#')
                     self.line_comment.append(' '.join(line[comment_start:]))
@@ -60,6 +58,8 @@ class AsciiReader:
                 except ValueError:
                     self.line_comment.append('')
 
+                is_empty = len(line) == 0
+
                 if not is_empty:
                     self.width.append(len(line))
                     self.lines.append(line)