| union

## Function

Reads sequence fragments and builds one sequence

## Description

union reads in several sequences, concatenates them and writes them out as a single sequence.

It is most useful when the input sequences are specified in a List file. The List file (file of sequence names) can be any set of sequences in files or database entries specified in the normal EMBOSS USA (which can include the spcification of sub-regions of the sequence, eg. 'em:hsfau[20,55]'). Specifying several such subregions in a sequence or sequences allows you to enter disjoint sequences to be joined.

## Usage

Here is a sample session with union

the file 'cds.list' contains a list of the regions making up the coding sequence of 'embl:hsfau':

    % union
    Reads sequence fragments and builds one sequence
    Input sequence(s): @../../data/cds.list
    Output sequence [hsfau1.fasta]:

Go to the input files for this example
Go to the output files for this example

## Command line arguments

       Mandatory qualifiers:
      [-sequence]          seqall     Sequence database USA
      [-outseq]            seqout     Output sequence USA

       Optional qualifiers: (none)
       Advanced qualifiers: (none)
       Associated qualifiers:
      "-sequence" related qualifiers
       -sbegin1             integer    First base used
       -send1               integer    Last base used, def=seq length
       -sreverse1           boolean    Reverse (if DNA)
       -sask1               boolean    Ask for begin/end/reverse
       -snucleotide1        boolean    Sequence is nucleotide
       -sprotein1           boolean    Sequence is protein
       -slower1             boolean    Make lower case
       -supper1             boolean    Make upper case
       -sformat1            string     Input sequence format
       -sopenfile1          string     Input filename
       -sdbname1            string     Database name
       -sid1                string     Entryname
       -ufo1                string     UFO features
       -fformat1            string     Features format
       -fopenfile1          string     Features file name
      "-outseq" related qualifiers
       -osformat2           string     Output seq format
       -osextension2        string     File name extension
       -osname2             string     Base file name
       -osdirectory2        string     Output directory
       -osdbname2           string     Database name to add
       -ossingle2           boolean    Separate file for each entry
       -oufo2               string     UFO features
       -offormat2           string     Features format
       -ofname2             string     Features file name
       -ofdirectory2        string     Output directory

       General qualifiers:
       -auto                boolean    Turn off prompts
       -stdout              boolean    Write standard output
       -filter              boolean    Read standard input, write standard output
       -options             boolean    Prompt for required and optional values
       -debug               boolean    Write debug output to program.dbg
       -acdlog              boolean    Write ACD processing log to program.acdlog
       -acdpretty           boolean    Rewrite ACD file as program.acdpretty
       -acdtable            boolean    Write HTML table of options
       -verbose             boolean    Report some/full command line options
       -help                boolean    Report command line options. More
                                      information on associated and general
                                      qualifiers can be found with -help -verbose
       -warning             boolean    Report warnings
       -error               boolean    Report errors
       -fatal               boolean    Report fatal errors
       -die                 boolean    Report deaths

Mandatory qualifiers | Allowed values | Default
--- | --- | ---
[-sequence] (Parameter 1) | Sequence database USA | Readable sequence(s) | Required
[-outseq] (Parameter 2) | Output sequence USA | Writeable sequence | <sequence>.format
Optional qualifiers | Allowed values | Default
(none)
Advanced qualifiers | Allowed values | Default
(none)

## Input file format

The input can be any set of sequences in a file of multiple sequence entries or in a List file. The sequences are concatenated in the order in which they appear in the file.

### Input files for usage example

### File: ../../data/cds.list

    tembl-id:HSFAU1[782:856]
    tembl-id:HSFAU1[951:1095]
    tembl-id:HSFAU1[1557:1612]
    tembl-id:HSFAU1[1787:1912]

You may find the program yank useful for creating List files.

## Output file format

### Output files for usage example

### File: hsfau1.fasta

    >HSFAU1 X65921.1 H.sapiens fau 1 gene
    atgcagctctttgtccgcgcccaggagctacacaccttcgaggtgaccggccaggaaacg
    gtcgcccagatcaaggctcatgtagcctcactggagggcattgccccggaagatcaagtc
    gtgctcctggcaggcgcgcccctggaggatgaggccactctgggccagtgcggggtggag
    gccctgactaccctggaagtagcaggccgcatgcttggaggtaaagtccatggttccctg
    gcccgtgctggaaaagtgagaggtcagactcctaaggtggccaaacaggagaagaagaag
    aagaagacaggtcgggctaagcggcggatgcagtacaaccggcgctttgtcaacgttgtg
    cccacctttggcaagaagaagggccccaatgccaactcttaa

The result is a normal sequence file containing a single sequence resulting from the concatenation of the input sequences.

## Data files

None.

## Notes

None.

## References

None.

## Warnings

None.

## Diagnostic Error Messages

None.

## Exit status

It always exits with status 0.

## Known bugs

None.

## 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
seqretsplit | Reads and writes (returns) sequences in individual files
skipseq | Reads and writes (returns) sequences, skipping the first few
splitter | Split a sequence into (overlapping) smaller sequences
trimest | Trim poly-A tails off EST sequences
trimseq | Trim ambiguous bits off the ends of sequences
vectorstrip | Strips out DNA between a pair of vector sequences
yank | Reads a sequence range, appends the full USA to a list file

You may find the program yank useful for creating List files.

## Author(s)

Peter Rice (pmr © ebi.ac.uk)
Informatics Division, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK

## History

Written (March 2002) - Peter Rice.

## Target users

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

## Comments