| More docs on the ARB website. See also index of helppages. Last update on 14. Feb 2019 .

Main topics:

- ARB: a Short Introduction
- Glossary
- Merge main window and workflow

Related topics:

- Synchronize species IDs / ARB name server

# Synchronize species IDs before merging

- DESCRIPTION
- NOTES
- WARNINGS
- BUGS

## DESCRIPTION

### When merging two databases it is VERY IMPORTANT to use identical IDs ('name') for identical species and different IDs for different species. If not, data of different species will be merged or overwritten.

### Species are identified using the accession number and (optionally) one additional field. If you use an additional field, a different nameserver is used to synchronize species IDs.

### Because of different name servers, merging two databases is only possible if both databases use no additional field or if they use the same field.

### To synchronize IDs of all species in both databases, press the 'Check IDs ...' button to open the 'Synchronize IDs' window.

### Make sure both databases use the same additional id.

### Press the 'Synchronize' button to synchronize species IDs in both databases.

## NOTES

### Automatically creates unique IDs (=shortname) for all species entries in the database. The entries are identified by their accession numbers (public databases). The IDs are created using the 'full_name' information. Usually, the first three letters are taken from the genus designation, the remaining letters from the species name.

### In some cases where you are absolutely sure that both databases use identical IDs for identical species, but renaming creates different IDs (e.g. because one DB lacks accession numbers) you can override ID synchronization by checking the 'Override' toggle.

## WARNINGS

### If there are duplicated entries (same accession number - different 'full_name'; no accession number - same 'full_name') the different versions are indicated by appending running numbers separated from the 'name' by a dot.

### Normally merging is not allowed when there are duplicated species.

### You may override that behavior by checking 'Allow merging duplicates', but be warned:

It is VERY DANGEROUS to merge when duplicated species are in your databases, cause there is no guarantee, that duplicates with the same .NUM suffix refer to the same species. You may easily overwrite or duplicate your data!

### Similar applies to the 'Override' toggle. Be careful!

## BUGS

### No bugs known