getEntryByKey

Retrieve entries from source file associated with BioIndexedFile object using alphanumeric key

Syntax

Entries = getEntryByKey(BioIFobj, Key)

Description

Entries = getEntryByKey(BioIFobj, Key) extracts entries from the source file associated with BioIFobj, a BioIndexedFile object. It extracts and concatenates the entries specified by Key, a character vector or cell array of character vectors specifying one or more alphanumeric keys. It returns Entries, a character vector of concatenated entries. If the keys in the source file are not unique, it returns all entries that match a specified key, all at the position of the key in the Key cell array. If the keys in the source file are unique, there is a one-to-one relationship between the number and order of elements in Key and the output Entries.

Input Arguments

`BioIFobj`	Object of the `BioIndexedFile` class.
`Key`	Character vector or cell array of character vectors specifying one or more keys in the source file associated with `BioIFobj`, the BioIndexedFile object.

Output Arguments

Entries

Character vector of concatenated entries extracted from the source file associated with BioIFobj, the BioIndexedFile object.

Examples

Construct a BioIndexedFile object to access a table containing cross-references between gene names and gene ontology (GO) terms:

% Create variable containing full absolute path of source file
sourcefile = which('yeastgenes.sgd');
% Create a BioIndexedFile object from the source file. Indicate
% the source file is a tab-delimited file where contiguous rows
% with the same key are considered a single entry. Store the
% index file in the Current Folder. Indicate that keys are
% located in column 3 and that header lines are prefaced with !
gene2goObj = BioIndexedFile('mrtab', sourcefile, '.', ...
                            'KeyColumn', 3, 'HeaderPrefix','!')

Return the entries from the source file that are specified by the keys AAC1 and AAD10:

% Access entries that have the keys AAC1 and AAD10
subset_entries = getEntryByKey(gene2goObj, {'AAC1' 'AAD10'});

Tips

Use this method to visualize and explore a subset of the entries in the source file for validation purposes.