NAME

Ace::Sequence::FeatureList - Lightweight Access to Features

SYNOPSIS

    # get a megabase from the middle of chromosome I
    $seq = Ace::Sequence->new(-name   => 'CHROMOSOME_I,
                              -db     => $db,
                              -offset => 3_000_000,
                              -length => 1_000_000);

    # find out what's there
    $list = $seq->feature_list;

    # Scalar context: count all the features
    $feature_count = $list->types;

    # Array context: list all the feature types
    @feature_types = $list->types;

    # Scalar context, 1 argument.  Count this type
    $gene_cnt = $list->types('Predicted_gene');
    print "There are $gene_cnt genes here.\n";

    # Array context, 1 argument.  Get list of subtypes
    @subtypes = $list->types('Predicted_gene');

    # Two arguments. Count type & subtype
    $genefinder_cnt = $list->types('Predicted_gene','genefinder');

DESCRIPTION

Ace::Sequence::FeatureList is a small class that provides statistical information about sequence features. From it you can obtain summary counts of the features and their types within a selected region.

OBJECT CREATION

You will not ordinarily create an Ace::Sequence::FeatureList object directly. Instead, objects will be created by calling a Ace::Sequence object's feature_list() method. If you wish to create an Ace::Sequence::FeatureList object directly, please consult the source code for the new() method.

OBJECT METHODS

There are only two methods in Ace::Sequence::FeatureList.

type()

This method has five distinct behaviors, depending on its context and the number of parameters. Usage should be intuitive

 Context       Arguments       Behavior
 -------       ---------       --------

 scalar         -none-         total count of features in list
 array          -none-         list feature types (e.g. "exon")
 scalar          type          count features of this type
 array           type          list subtypes of this type
 -any-       type,subtype      count features of this type & subtype

For example, this code fragment will count the number of exons present on the list:

  $exon_count = $list->type('exon');

This code fragment will count the number of exons found by "genefinder":

  $predicted_exon_count = $list->type('exon','genefinder');

This code fragment will print out all subtypes of "exon" and their counts:

  for my $subtype ($list->type('exon')) {
      print $subtype,"\t",$list->type('exon',$subtype),"\n";
  }

asString()

  print $list->asString;

This dumps the list out in tab-delimited format. The order of columns is type, subtype, count.

AUTHOR

Lincoln Stein <lstein@w3.org> with extensive help from Jean Thierry-Mieg <mieg@kaa.crbm.cnrs-mop.fr>