## org.biojava.bio.symbol
Interface Alignment

All Superinterfaces:
  Changeable, SymbolList

All Known Subinterfaces:
  ARAlignment, StatePath, UnequalLengthAlignment

All Known Implementing Classes:
  AbstractULAlignment, AbstractULAlignment.SubULAlignment, FlexibleAlignment, RelabeledAlignment, SimilarityPairFeature.EmptyPairwiseAlignment, SimpleAlignment, SimpleStatePath

    public interface Alignment

extends SymbolList

An alignment containing multiple SymbolLists.

The alignment can be thought of as a rectangular array of Symbols. Each row is indexed by a label and each column is indexed by offset (counting from 1).

Alternatively, it can be thought of as a SymbolList where each Symbol is a list of Symbols in that column.

To create gapped alignments, use SymbolLists with gaps. The most flexible way to do this will be to leverage GappedSymbolList objects.

Since:
  1.1
Author:
  Matthew Pocock, Nimesh Singh

Nested Class Summary
`static class` `Alignment.SymbolListIterator` Iterator implementation looping over symbol lists in an alignment using the labels.

Field Summary
`static ChangeType` `CONTENT` Signals that SymbolLists will be added to or removed from an alignment.

Fields inherited from interface org.biojava.bio.symbol.SymbolList
`EDIT, EMPTY_LIST`

Method Summary
`List` `getLabels()` The list of SymbolLists in the alignment.
`Alignment` `subAlignment(Set labels, Location loc)` Make a view onto this alignment.
`Symbol` `symbolAt(Object label, int column)` Retrieve a symbol by label and column.
`SymbolList` `symbolListForLabel(Object label)` Retrieve a single row of the alignment by label.
`Iterator` `symbolListIterator()` Creates an Iterator over the SymbolLists in the alignment.

Methods inherited from interface org.biojava.bio.symbol.SymbolList
`edit, getAlphabet, iterator, length, seqString, subList, subStr, symbolAt, toList`

Methods inherited from interface org.biojava.utils.Changeable
`addChangeListener, addChangeListener, isUnchanging, removeChangeListener, removeChangeListener`

Field Detail

### CONTENT

    static final ChangeType CONTENT

  Signals that SymbolLists will be added to or removed from an alignment. The ChangeEvent will record Object[] { label, symbolList } in previous if it is being removed, in current if it is being added and in both if the SymbolList for a given name is swapped.

Method Detail

### getLabels

    List getLabels()

  The list of SymbolLists in the alignment.

  The index in the list is the same as the index in the alignment. Each SymbolList object will only be in the alignment once. However, a single underlying SymbolList may have more than one view within an alignment, each represented by a different GappedSymbolList.

  Returns:
    the List of all SymbolLists in the alignment

### symbolAt

    Symbol symbolAt(Object label,
                    int column)
                    throws NoSuchElementException

  Retrieve a symbol by label and column.

  Parameters:
    `label` - the SymbolList to retrieve from
    `column` - the index of the column to retrieve
  Returns:
    the symbol in the symbol list associated with the label at the given column
  Throws:
    `NoSuchElementException` - if there is no row for 'label'

### symbolListForLabel

    SymbolList symbolListForLabel(Object label)
                                  throws NoSuchElementException

  Retrieve a single row of the alignment by label.

  Parameters:
    `label` - the object from which to retrieve the symbol list
  Returns:
    a SymbolList that contains each token in a row of the alignment
  Throws:
    `NoSuchElementException` - if there is no row for 'label'

### subAlignment

    Alignment subAlignment(Set labels,
                           Location loc)
                           throws NoSuchElementException

  Make a view onto this alignment.

  If labels is null, then each label will be kept. Otherwise, only those in labels will be kept. If loc is null, then the entire length of the alignment will be kept. If loc is not null, then only the columns within the location will be kept.

  Parameters:
    `labels` - the Set of sequences to include by label
    `loc` - the Location to include
  Returns:
    a sub Alignment
  Throws:
    `NoSuchElementException` - if labels contains any item that is not a label

### symbolListIterator

    Iterator symbolListIterator()

  Creates an Iterator over the SymbolLists in the alignment. This should be similar to iterating over the labels and then fetching each SymbolList, but the order is not guaranteed to be the same.

  Returns:
    an Iterator