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