in a string or set...
In Biostrings: Efficient manipulation of biological strings

Description Usage Arguments Value Note Author(s) See Also Examples

extractAt extracts multiple subsequences from XString object x, or from the individual sequences of XStringSet object x, at the ranges of positions specified thru at.

replaceAt performs multiple subsequence replacements (a.k.a. substitutions) in XString object x, or in the individual sequences of XStringSet object x, at the ranges of positions specified thru at.

1 2	extractAt(x, at) replaceAt(x, at, value="")

x

An XString or XStringSet object.

at

Typically a IntegerRanges object if x is an XString object, and an IntegerRangesList object if x is an XStringSet object.

Alternatively, the ranges can be specified with only 1 number per range (its start position), in which case they are considered to be empty ranges (a.k.a. zero-width ranges). So if at is a numeric vector, an IntegerList object, or a list of numeric vectors, each number in it is interpreted as the start position of a zero-width range. This is useful when using replaceAt to perform insertions.

The following applies only if x is an XStringSet object:

at is recycled to the length of x if necessary. If at is a IntegerRanges object (or a numeric vector), it is first turned into a IntegerRangesList object of length 1 and then this IntegerRangesList object is recycled to the length of x. This is useful for specifying the same ranges across all sequences in x. The effective shape of at is described by its length together with the lengths of its list elements after recycling.

As a special case, extractAt accepts at and value to be both of length 0, in which case it just returns x unmodified (no-op).

value

The replacement sequences.

If x is an XString object, value is typically a character vector or an XStringSet object that is recycled to the length of at (if necessary).

If x is an XStringSet object, value is typically a list of character vectors or a CharacterList or XStringSetList object. If necessary, it is recycled "vertically" first and then "horizontally" to bring it into the effective shape of at (see above). "Vertical recycling" is the usual recycling whereas "horizontal recycling" recycles the individual list elements .

As a special case, extractAt accepts at and value to be both of length 0, in which case it just returns x unmodified (no-op).

For extractAt: An XStringSet object of the same length as at if x is an XString object. An XStringSetList object of the same length as x (and same effective shape as at) if x is an XStringSet object.

For replaceAt: An object of the same class as x. If x is an XStringSet object, its length and names and metadata columns are preserved.

Like subseq (defined and documented in the XVector package), extractAt does not copy the sequence data!

extractAt is equivalent to extractList (defined and documented in the IRanges package) when x is an XString object and at a IntegerRanges object.

H. Pag<c3><a8>s

The subseq and subseq<- functions in the XVector package for simpler forms of subsequence extractions and replacements.
The extractList and unstrsplit functions defined and documented in the IRanges package.
The replaceLetterAt function for a DNA-specific single-letter replacement functions useful for SNP injections.
The padAndClip function for padding and clipping strings.
The XString, XStringSet, and XStringSetList classes.
The IntegerRanges, IntegerRangesList, IntegerList, and CharacterList classes defined and documented in the IRanges package.

## ---------------------------------------------------------------------
## (A) ON AN XString OBJECT
## ---------------------------------------------------------------------
x <- BString("abcdefghijklm")

at1 <- IRanges(5:1, width=3)
extractAt(x, at1)
names(at1) <- LETTERS[22:26]
extractAt(x, at1)

at2 <- IRanges(c(1, 5, 12), c(3, 4, 12), names=c("X", "Y", "Z"))
extractAt(x, at2)
extractAt(x, rev(at2))

value <- c("+", "-", "*")
replaceAt(x, at2, value=value)
replaceAt(x, rev(at2), value=rev(value))

at3 <- IRanges(c(14, 1, 1, 1, 1, 11), c(13, 0, 10, 0, 0, 10))
value <- 1:6
replaceAt(x, at3, value=value)            # "24536klm1"
replaceAt(x, rev(at3), value=rev(value))  # "54236klm1"

## Deletions:
stopifnot(replaceAt(x, at2) == "defghijkm")
stopifnot(replaceAt(x, rev(at2)) == "defghijkm")
stopifnot(replaceAt(x, at3) == "klm")
stopifnot(replaceAt(x, rev(at3)) == "klm")

## Insertions:
at4 <- IRanges(c(6, 10, 2, 5), width=0)
stopifnot(replaceAt(x, at4, value="-") == "a-bcd-e-fghi-jklm")
stopifnot(replaceAt(x, start(at4), value="-") == "a-bcd-e-fghi-jklm")
at5 <- c(5, 1, 6, 5)  # 2 insertions before position 5 
replaceAt(x, at5, value=c("+", "-", "*", "/"))

## No-ops:
stopifnot(replaceAt(x, NULL, value=NULL) == x)
stopifnot(replaceAt(x, at2, value=extractAt(x, at2)) == x)
stopifnot(replaceAt(x, at3, value=extractAt(x, at3)) == x)
stopifnot(replaceAt(x, at4, value=extractAt(x, at4)) == x)
stopifnot(replaceAt(x, at5, value=extractAt(x, at5)) == x)

## The order of successive transformations matters:
##   T1: insert "+" before position 1 and 4
##   T2: insert "-" before position 3

## T1 followed by T2
x2a <- replaceAt(x, c(1, 4), value="+")
x3a <- replaceAt(x2a, 3, value="-")

## T2 followed by T1
x2b <- replaceAt(x, 3, value="-")
x3b <- replaceAt(x2b, c(1, 4), value="+")

## T1 and T2 simultaneously:
x3c <- replaceAt(x, c(1, 3, 4), value=c("+", "-", "+"))

## ==> 'x3a', 'x3b', and 'x3c' are all different!

## Append "**" to 'x3c':
replaceAt(x3c, length(x3c) + 1L, value="**")

## ---------------------------------------------------------------------
## (B) ON AN XStringSet OBJECT
## ---------------------------------------------------------------------
x <- BStringSet(c(seq1="ABCD", seq2="abcdefghijk", seq3="XYZ"))

at6 <- IRanges(c(1, 3), width=1)
extractAt(x, at=at6)
unstrsplit(extractAt(x, at=at6))

at7 <- IRangesList(IRanges(c(2, 1), c(3, 0)),
                   IRanges(c(7, 2, 12, 7), c(6, 5, 11, 8)),
                   IRanges(2, 2))
## Set inner names on 'at7'.
unlisted_at7 <- unlist(at7)
names(unlisted_at7) <-
    paste0("rg", sprintf("%02d", seq_along(unlisted_at7)))
at7 <- relist(unlisted_at7, at7)

extractAt(x, at7)  # same as 'as(mapply(extractAt, x, at7), "List")'
extractAt(x, at7[3])  # same as 'as(mapply(extractAt, x, at7[3]), "List")'

replaceAt(x, at7, value=extractAt(x, at7))  # no-op
replaceAt(x, at7)  # deletions

at8 <- IRangesList(IRanges(1:5, width=0),
                   IRanges(c(6, 8, 10, 7, 2, 5),
                           width=c(0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0)),
                   IRanges(c(1, 2, 1), width=c(0, 1, 0)))
replaceAt(x, at8, value="-")
value8 <- relist(paste0("[", seq_along(unlist(at8)), "]"), at8)
replaceAt(x, at8, value=value8)
replaceAt(x, at8, value=as(c("+", "-", "*"), "List"))

## Append "**" to all sequences:
replaceAt(x, as(width(x) + 1L, "List"), value="**")

## ---------------------------------------------------------------------
## (C) ADVANCED EXAMPLES
## ---------------------------------------------------------------------
library(hgu95av2probe)
probes <- DNAStringSet(hgu95av2probe)

## Split the probes in 5-mer chunks:
at <- successiveIRanges(rep(5, 5))
extractAt(probes, at)

## Replace base 13 by its complement:
at <- IRanges(13, width=1)
base13 <- extractAt(probes, at)
base13comp <- relist(complement(unlist(base13)), base13)
replaceAt(probes, at, value=base13comp)
## See ?xscat for a more efficient way to do this.

## Replace all the occurences of a given pattern with another pattern:
midx <- vmatchPattern("VCGTT", probes, fixed=FALSE)
matches <- extractAt(probes, midx)
unlist(matches)
unique(unlist(matches))
probes2 <- replaceAt(probes, midx, value="-++-")

## See strings with 2 or more susbtitutions:
probes2[elementNROWS(midx) >= 2]

## 2 sanity checks:
stopifnot(all(replaceAt(probes, midx, value=matches) == probes))
probes2b <- gsub("[ACG]CGTT", "-++-", as.character(probes))
stopifnot(identical(as.character(probes2), probes2b))