GeneLinker™ Gene List Native File Format

Overview

Features

Text following a comment character ';' is ignored if the ';' is at the beginning of the line or is immediately preceded by a whitespace (a blank or a tab).
Blank lines are ignored.
Text enclosed in '[' and ']' on a single line marks the beginning of a list. Genes listed thereafter belong to this list
Text between the '[' and ']' is the name, and optionally a description of the list. If the description appears, it must follow the name separated by a '|' (pipe).
The name of the first list in the file is optional, and if absent then the name of the first list is assumed to be that of the file being imported (minus the extension).
Genes are listed with one gene entry per line. Each entry has 1 to 3 fields separated by commas (if commas appear in the text of the gene entry, then that text must be quoted).
The first field is required, and is the database identifier of the gene.
The second field is optional and is the gene name.
The third field is optional and is a short description for the gene.

Example 1: Two gene lists in the same import file.

; Simple Gene List Example

[Simple Gene List]

Hs.178452

Hs.48876

Hs.99910

; Second Simple List in the same file

[Second Simple List]

Hs.289271

Hs.75593

Hs.91379

Example 2: Single, more complex list in a file.

; More Complex Gene List Example

[More Complex Gene List | This list adds names and some descriptions.]

Hs.178452,Gene 1

Hs.48876,Gene 2

Hs.99910,Gene 3,I particularly like this gene.

Hs.289271,Gene 4

Hs.75593,Gene 5,"This description, unlike the other, contains commas."