Bio::ASN1::EntrezGene::Indexer(3)

NAME
Bio::ASN1::EntrezGene::Indexer - Indexes NCBI Entrez Gene files.

SYNOPSIS
  use Bio::ASN1::EntrezGene::Indexer;

  # creating & using the index is just a few lines
  my $inx = Bio::ASN1::EntrezGene::Indexer->new(
    -filename => 'entrezgene.idx',
    -write_flag => 'WRITE'); # needed for make_index call, but if opening
                             # existing index file, don't set write flag!
  $inx->make_index('Homo_sapiens', 'Mus_musculus', 'Rattus_norvegicus');
  my $seq = $inx->fetch(10); # Bio::Seq obj for Entrez Gene #10
  # alternatively, if one prefers just a data structure instead of objects
  $seq = $inx->fetch_hash(10); # a hash produced by Bio::ASN1::EntrezGene
                            # that contains all data in the Entrez Gene record

  # note that in case you wonder, you can get the files 'Homo_sapiens'
  # from NCBI Entrez Gene ftp download, DATA/ASN/Mammalia directory

PREREQUISITE
Bio::ASN1::EntrezGene, Bioperl version that contains Stefan Kirov's entrezgene.pm and all dependencies therein.

INSTALLATION
Same as Bio::ASN1::EntrezGene

DESCRIPTION
Bio::ASN1::EntrezGene::Indexer is a Perl Indexer for NCBI Entrez Gene genome databases. It processes an ASN.1-formatted Entrez Gene record and stores the file position for each record in a way compliant with Bioperl standard (in fact its a subclass of Bioperl's index objects).

Note that this module does not parse record, because it needs to run fast and grab only the gene ids. For parsing record, use Bio::ASN1::EntrezGene, or better yet, use Bio::SeqIO, format 'entrezgene'.

It takes this module (version 1.07) 21 seconds to index the human genome Entrez Gene file (Apr. 5/2005 download) on one 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon processor.

SEE ALSO
For details on various parsers I generated for Entrez Gene, example scripts that uses/benchmarks the modules, please see <http://sourceforge.net/projects/egparser/>. Those other parsers etc. are included in V1.05 download.

AUTHOR
Dr. Mingyi Liu <mingyi.liu@gpc-biotech.com>

COPYRIGHT
The Bio::ASN1::EntrezGene module and its related modules and scripts are copyright (c) 2005 Mingyi Liu, GPC Biotech AG and Altana Research Institute. All rights reserved. I created these modules when working on a collaboration project between these two companies. Therefore a special thanks for the two companies to allow the release of the code into public domain.

You may use and distribute them under the terms of the Perl itself or GPL (<http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html>).

CITATION
Liu, M and Grigoriev, A (2005) "Fast Parsers for Entrez Gene" Bioinformatics. In press

OPERATION SYSTEMS SUPPORTED
Any OS that Perl & Bioperl run on.

METHODS

  fetch
  Parameters: $geneid - id for the Entrez Gene record to be retrieved
  Example:    my $hash = $indexer->fetch(10); # get Entrez Gene #10
  Function:   fetch the data for the given Entrez Gene id.
  Returns:    A Bio::Seq object produced by Bio::SeqIO::entrezgene
  Notes:      One needs to have Bio::SeqIO::entrezgene installed before
                calling this function!

  fetch_hash
  Parameters: $geneid - id for the Entrez Gene record to be retrieved
  Example:    my $hash = $indexer->fetch_hash(10); # get Entrez Gene #10
  Function:   fetch a hash produced by Bio::ASN1::EntrezGene for given Entrez
                Gene id.
  Returns:    A data structure containing all data items from the Entrez
                Gene record.
  Notes:      Alternative to fetch()

  _file_handle
  Title   : _file_handle
  Usage   : $fh = $index->_file_handle( INT )
  Function: Returns an open filehandle for the file
            index INT.  On opening a new filehandle it
            caches it in the @{$index->_filehandle} array.
            If the requested filehandle is already open,
            it simply returns it from the array.
  Example : $fist_file_indexed = $index->_file_handle( 0 );
  Returns : ref to a filehandle
  Args    : INT
  Notes   : This function is copied from Bio::Index::Abstract. Once that module
              changes file handle code like I do below to fit perl 5.005_03, this
              sub would be removed from this module