| ## EMBOSS: seqretsplit

# Program seqretsplit

## Function

Reads and writes (returns) sequences in individual files

## Description

seqretsplit is exactly the same as the program seqret except that when it writes out more than one sequence, it writes each sequence to an individual file.

Its main use is therefore to split a file containing multiple sequences into many files, each containing one sequence.

The names of the files it creates are derived from the ID name of the sequence, followed by an extension denoting the format of the sequence. You have no control over the names of the files it writes out.

For example, if the files embl:hsfa11* are read in and the output is specified as wibble.seq, then the following files are expected to be created:

    hsfa110.fasta
    hsfa111.fasta
    hsfa112.fasta
    hsfa113.fasta
    hsfa114.fasta

(No file wibble.seq is created.)

Why would you want to split a multiple sequence file into many individual files?

EMBOSS programs can read in many sequences from one file where this is sensible. Sometimes EMBOSS programs can only read in one sequence at a time because that is the sensible way to do things, but your sequence is one sequence of many in a file. You can specify that sequence using the USA filename:sequenceID, but you may still feel more comfortable splitting your sequences up into many files first.

Many non-EMBOSS programs will also have restrictions on whether they can read in multiple sequence files or not.

## Usage

Here is a sample session with seqretsplit:

    % seqretsplit
    Reads and writes (returns) sequences in individual files
    Input sequence(s): embl:hsfa11*
    Output sequence [hsfa110.fasta]:

The specification of the output file is not used in this case.

At some point this ought to change and you will not be prompted for the output file at all.

## Command line arguments

       Mandatory qualifiers:
      [-sequence]          seqall     Sequence database USA
      [-outseq]            seqoutall  Output sequence(s) USA

       Optional qualifiers: (none)
       Advanced qualifiers:
       -firstonly          bool       Read one sequence and stop

       General qualifiers:
      -help                bool       report command line options. More
                                      information on associated and general
                                      qualifiers can be found with -help -verbose

Mandatory qualifiers | Allowed values | Default
--- | --- | ---
[-sequence] (Parameter 1) | Sequence database USA | Readable sequence(s) | Required
[-outseq] (Parameter 2) | Output sequence(s) USA | Writeable sequence(s) | <sequence>.format
Optional qualifiers | Allowed values | Default
(none)
Advanced qualifiers | Allowed values | Default
-firstonly | Read one sequence and stop | Yes/No | No

## Input file format

Normal sequence USA.

## Output file format

One file for each input sequence is written out.

The names of the files it creates are derived from the ID name of the sequence, followed by an extension denoting the format of the sequence. You have no control over the names of the files it writes out.

For example, if the files embl:hsfa11* are read in and the output is specified as wibble.seq, then the following files are expected to be created:

    hsfa110.fasta
    hsfa111.fasta
    hsfa112.fasta
    hsfa113.fasta
    hsfa114.fasta

(No file wibble.seq is created.)

## Data files

None.

## Notes

None.

## References

None.

## Warnings

None.

## Diagnostic Error Messages

None.

## Exit status

It always exits with status 0.

## Known bugs

It shouldn't really prompt for the output filename.

## See also

Program name | Description
--- | ---
biosed | Replace or delete sequence sections
cutseq | Removes a specified section from a sequence
degapseq | Removes gap characters from sequences
descseq | Alter the name or description of a sequence
entret | Reads and writes (returns) flatfile entries
extractfeat | Extract features from a sequence
extractseq | Extract regions from a sequence
listor | Writes a list file of the logical OR of two sets of sequences
maskfeat | Mask off features of a sequence
maskseq | Mask off regions of a sequence
newseq | Type in a short new sequence
noreturn | Removes carriage return from ASCII files
notseq | Excludes a set of sequences and writes out the remaining ones
nthseq | Writes one sequence from a multiple set of sequences
pasteseq | Insert one sequence into another
revseq | Reverse and complement a sequence
seqret | Reads and writes (returns) sequences
splitter | Split a sequence into (overlapping) smaller sequences
swissparse | Retrieves sequences from swissprot using keyword search
trimest | Trim poly-A tails off EST sequences
trimseq | Trim ambiguous bits off the ends of sequences
union | Reads sequence fragments and builds one sequence
vectorstrip | Strips out DNA between a pair of vector sequences
yank | Reads a sequence range, appends the full USA to a list file

## Author(s)

This application was written by Peter Rice (price@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk)

## History

Written (Jan 2000) - Peter Rice

## Target users

This program is intended to be used by everyone and everything, from naive users to embedded scripts.

## Comments