| More docs on the ARB website. See also index of helppages. Last update on 27. Jun 2017 .

Main topics:

- ARB: a Short Introduction
- Glossary

Related topics:

- How to fix an 'exec' problem ?
- Search and Replace Tool (SRT)
- Regular Expressions (REG)

# ARB Command Interpreter (ACI)

- OCCURRENCE
- DESCRIPTION
- Example data flow
- PARAMETERS
- COMMANDLIST
- Future features
- EXAMPLES
- BUGS

## OCCURRENCE

### NDS

### [ export db ]

### [ ARB_NT/Species/search/parse_fields ]

## DESCRIPTION

### The command interpreter is a simple interpreter.

### All commands take the data from the input streams, modify it and write it to the output (which may be the input of the next command).

### The first input stream often is the value of a database field (see NDS for more information).

e.g. count("a") counts every 'a' in each input stream and generates an output stream (== the sum of 'a') for every input.

### Many commands have parameters which are specified behind the command in parenthesis.

### Different commands can be separated by:

    ';'     all !!! commands take all !!!  the input streams and
            each command generates its own output streams
    '|'     the output of the left commands are used as the input
            of the right.

### e.g.

count("A");count("AG")
creates two streams:

1. how many A's
2. and how many A's and G's

count("A");count("G")|per_cent
per_cent is a command that divides two numbers (number of 'A's / number of 'G's) and returns the result as percent.

### Finally all output streams are concatenated and

- NDS:printed at the tips of the tree.
- MODIFY DATABASE FIELD: stored in the destination field.

## Example data flow

### eg: count("A");count("G")|"a/g = "; per_cent

    input                                                         concatenate output
    "AGG" ----> count("A") -->| -----> "a/g = " --> | --> "a/g = " ---> 'a/g = 50'
          \                   | \ /                 |               /
           \                  |  \                  |              /
            \                 | / \                 |             /
             -> count("G") -->| -----> per_cent --> | --> "50" ---

## PARAMETERS

### Several commands expect or accept additional parameters in parenthesis (e.g. 'remove(aA)').

### Multiple parameters have to be separated by ',' or ';'.

### There are two distinct ways to specify such a parameter:

- unquoted
  Unquoted parameters are taken as specified, but may not contain any of the following characters: ',;"|)'
- quoted
  Quoted parameters begin and end with a '"'. You can use any character, but you need to escape '\' and '"' by preceeding a '\'.

      Example: 'remove("\"")' will remove all double quotes from input.
               'remove("\\")' will remove all backslashes from input.

### [@@@ behavior currently not strictly implemented]

## COMMANDLIST

### If not otherwise mentioned every command creates one output stream for each input stream.

### STREAM HANDLING

    echo(x1;x2;x3...)       creates an output stream for each
                            parameter 'x' and writes 'x' onto it.

    "text"                  same as 'echo("text")'

    dd                      copies all input streams to output streams

    cut(N1,N2,N3)           copies the Nth input stream(s)

    drop(N1,N2)             copies all but the Nth input stream(s)

    dropempty               drops all empty input streams

    dropzero                drops all non-numeric or zero input streams

    swap(N1,N2)             swaps two input streams
                            (w/o parameters: swaps last two streams)

    toback(X)               moves the Xth input stream
                            to the end of output streams

    tofront(X)              moves the Xth input stream
                            to the start of output streams

    merge([sep])            merges all input streams into one output stream.
                            If 'sep' is specified, it's inserted between them.
                            If no input streams are given, it returns 1 empty
                            input stream.

    split([sep[,mode]])     splits all input streams at separator string 'sep'
                            (default: split at linefeed).

Modes:

    0               remove found separators (default)
    1               split before separator
    2               split after separator

    streams                 returns the number of input streams

### STRING

    head(n)                 the first n characters
    left(n)                 the first n characters

    tail(n)                 the last n characters
    right(n)                the last n characters

the above functions return an empty string for n<=0

    len                     the length of the input

    len("chr")              the length of the input excluding the
                            characters in 'chr'

    mid(x,y)                the substring string from position x to y

Allowed positions are

- [1..N] for mid()
- [0..N-1] for mid0()

A position below that range is relative to the end of the string, i.e. mid(-2,0) and mid0(-3,-1) are equiv to tail(3)

    crop("str")             removes characters of 'str' from
                            both ends of the input

    remove("str");          removes all characters of 'str'
                            e.g. remove(" ") removes all blanks

    keep("str");            the opposite of remove:
                            remove all chars that are not a member
                            of 'str'

    srt("orig=dest",...)    replace command, invokes SRT
                            (see ´Search and Replace Tool (SRT)´)

translate("old","new"[,"other"])
translates all characters from input that occur in the first argument ("old") by the corresponding character of the second argument ("new").
An optional third argument (one character only) means: replace all other characters with the third argument.
Example:

    Input:                        "--AabBCcxXy--"
    translate("abc-","xyz-")      "--AxyBCzxXy--"
    translate("abc-","xyz-",".")  "--.xy..z...--"

This can be used to replace illegal characters from sequence date (see predefined expressions in 'Modify fields of listed species').

    tab(n)                  append n-len(input) spaces

    pretab(n)               prepend n-len(input) spaces

    upper                   converts string to upper case
    lower                   converts string to lower case
    caps                    capitalizes string

format(options)
takes a long string and breaks it into several lines

    option       (default)     description
    ==========================================================
    width=#      (50)          line width
    firsttab=#   (10)          first line left indent
    tab=#        (10)          left indent (not first line)
    "nl=chrs"    (" ")         list of characters that specify
                               a possibly point of a line break;
                               This character is deleted !
    "forcenl=chrs" ("\n")      Force a newline at these characters.

(see also format_sequence below)
extract_words("chars",val)
Search for all words (separated by ',' ';' ':' ' ' or 'tab') that contain more characters of type chars than val, sort them alphabetically and write them separated by ' ' to the output

### ESCAPING AND QUOTING

    escape         escapes all occurrances of '\' and '"' by preceeding a '\'
    quote          quotes the input in '"'

    unescape       inverse of escape
    unquote        removes quotes (if present). otherwise return input

### STRING COMPARISON

    compare(a,b)             return -1 if a<b, 0 if a=b, 1 if a>b
    equals(a,b)              return 1 if a=b, 0 otherwise
    contains(a,b)            if a contains b, this returns the position of
                             b inside a (1..N) and 0 otherwise.
    partof(a,b)              if a is part of b, this returns the position of
                             a inside b (1..N) and 0 otherwise.

The above functions are binary operators (see below). For each of them a case-insensitive alternative exists (icompare, iequals, ...).

### CALCULATOR

    plus                    add arguments
    minus                   subtract arguments
    mult                    multiply arguments
    div                     divide arguments
    per_cent                divide arguments * 100 (rounded)
    rest                    divide arguments, take rest

The above functions work as binary operators (see below).
To avoid 'division by zero'-errors, the operators 'div', 'per_cent' and 'rest' return 0 if the second argument is zero.
Calculation is performed with integer numbers.

### BINARY OPERATORS

Several operators work as so called 'binary operators'. These operators may be used in various ways, which are shown using the operator 'plus':

    ACI                OUTPUT                  STREAMS
    plus(a,b)          a+b                     input:0 output:1
    a;b|plus           a+b                     input:2 output:1
    a;b;c;d|plus       a+b;c+d                 input:4 output:2
    a;b;c|operator(x)  a+x;b+x;c+x             input:3 output:3

That means, if the binary operator

- has no arguments, it expects an even number of input streams. The operator is applied to the first 2 streams, then to the second 2 stream and so on. The number of output streams is half the number of input streams.
- has 1 argument, it accepts one to many input streams. The operator is applied to each input stream together with the argument. For each input stream one output stream is generated.
- has 2 arguments, it is applied to these. The arguments are interpreted as ACI commands and are applied for each input stream. The results of the commands are passed as arguments to the binary operator. For each input stream one output stream is generated.

### CONDITIONAL

    select(a,b,c,...)       each input stream is converted into a number
                            (non-numeric text converts to zero). That number is
                            used to select one of the given arguments:
                                 0 selects 'a',
                                 1 selects 'b',
                                 2 selects 'c' and so on.
                            The selected argument is interpreted as ACI command
                            and is applied to an empty input stream.

### DEBUGGING

    trace(onoff)            toggle tracing of ACI actions to standard output.
                            Start arb from a terminal to see the output.
                            Parameter: 0 or 1 (switch off or on)

All streams are copied (like 'dd').

### DATABASE AND SEQUENCE

    readdb(field_name)      the contents of the field 'field_name'

    sequence                the sequence in the current alignment.

Note: older ARB versions returned 'no sequence' if the current alignment contained no sequence. Now it returns an empty string.
For genes it returns only the corresponding part of the sequence. If the field complement = 1 then the result is the reverse-complement.

    sequence_type           the sequence type of the selected alignment ('rna','dna',..)
    ali_name                the name of the selected alignment (e.g. 'ali_16s')

Note: The commands above only work at the beginning of the ACI expression.

    checksum(options)       calculates a CRC checksum
                            options:
                            "exclude=chrs"    remove 'chrs' before calculation
                            "toupper"         make everything uppercase first

    gcgchecksum             a gcg compatible checksum

format_sequence(options)
takes a long string ( sequence ) and breaks it into several lines

    option       (default)  description
    =============================================================
    width=#      (50)       sequence line width
    firsttab=#   (10)       first line left indent
    tab=#        (10)       left indent (not first line)
    numleft      (NO)       numbers on the left side
    gap=#        (10)       insert a gap every # seq. characters.

(see also 'format' above)
extract_sequence("chars",rel_len)
like extract_words, but do not sort words, but rel_len is the minimum percentage of characters of a word that mach a character in 'chars' before word is taken. All words will be separated by white space.
taxonomy([treename,] depth)
Returns the taxonomy of the current species or group as defined by a tree.
If 'treename' is specified, its used as tree, otherwise the 'default tree' is used (which in most cases is the tree displayed in the ARB_NT main window).
'depth' specifies how many "levels" of the taxonomy are used.

### FILTERING

There are several functions to filter sequential data:

- filter
- diff
- gc

All these functions use the following COMMON OPTIONS to define what is used as filter sequence:

- species=name
  Use species 'name' as filter.
- SAI=name
  Use SAI 'name' as filter.
- first=1
  Use 1st input stream as filter for all other input streams.
- pairwise=1
  Use 1st input stream as filter for 2nd stream, 3rd stream as filter for 4th stream, and so on.
- align=ali_name
  Use alignment 'ali_name' instead of current default alignment (only meaningful together with 'species' or 'SAI').

Note: Only one of the parameters 'species', 'SAI', 'first' or 'pairwise' may be used.
diff(options)
Calculates the difference between the filter (see common options above) and the input stream(s) and write the result to output stream(s).
Additional options:

- equal=x
  Character written to output if filter and stream are equal at a position (defaults to '.'). To copy the stream contents for equal columns, specify 'equal=' (directly followed by ',' or ')')
- differ=y
  Character written to output if filter and stream don't match at one column position. Default is to copy the character from the stream.

filter(options)
Filters only specified columns out of the input stream(s). You need to specify either

- exclude=xyz
  to use all columns, where the filter (see common options above) has none of the characters 'xyz'
  or
- include=xyz
  to use only columns, where the filter has one of the characters 'xyz'

All used columns are concatenated and written to the output stream(s).
change(options)
Randomly modifies the content of columns selected by the filter (see common options above). Only columns containing letters will be modified.
The options 'include=xyz' and 'exclude=xyz' work like with 'filter()', but here they select the columns to modify - all other columns get copied unmodified.
How the selected columns are modified, is specified by the following parameters:

- change=percent
  percentage of changed columns (default: silently change nothing, to make it more difficult for you to ignore this helpfile)
- to=xy
  randomly change to one of the characters 'xy'.
  Hints:
  - Use 'xyy' to produce 33% 'x' and 66% 'y'
  - Use 'xxxxxxxxxy' to produce 90% 'x' and 10% 'y'
  - Use 'x' to replace all matching columns by 'x'

I think the intention for this (long undocumented) command is to easily generate artificial sequences with different GC-content, in order to test treeing-software.

### SPECIALS

exec(command[,param1,param2,...])
Execute external (unix) command.
Given params will be single-quoted and passed to the command.
All input streams will be concatenated and piped into the command.
When the command itself is a pipe, put it in parenthesis (e.g. "(sort|uniq)"). Note: This won't work together with params.
The result is the output of the command.
WARNING!!!
You better not use this command for NDS, because any slow command will disable all editing -> You never can remove this command from the NDS. Even arb_panic will not easily help you.
command(action)
applies 'action' to all input streams using

- ACI,
- SRT (if starts with ':') (see ´Search and Replace Tool (SRT)´)
- or as REG (if starts with '/') (see ´Regular Expressions (REG)´).

If you nest calls (i.e. if 'action' contains further calls to 'command') you have to apply escaping multiple times (e.g. inside an export filter - which is in fact an SRT expression - you'll have to use double escapes).
eval(exprEvalToAction)
the 'exprEvalToAction' is evaluated (using an empty string as input) and the result is interpreted as action and gets applied to all input streams (as in 'command' above).

    Example: Said you have two numeric positions stored in database fields
             'pos1' and 'pos2' for each species. Then the following command
             extracts the sequence data from pos1 to pos2:

'sequence|eval(" \"mid(\";readdb(pos1);\";\";readdb(pos2);\")\" ")'
How the example works:
The argument is the escaped version of the command '"mid(" ; readdb(pos1) ; ";" ; readdb(pos2) ; ")"'.
If pos1 contains '10' and pos2 contains '20' that command will evaluate to 'mid(10;20)'.
For these positions the executed ACI behaves like 'sequence|mid(10;20)'.
define(name,escapedCommand)
defines a ACI-macro 'name'. 'escapedCommand' contains an escaped ACI command sequence. This command sequence can be executed with do(name).
do(name)
applies a previously defined ACI-macro to all input streams (see 'define').
'define(a,action)' followed by 'do(a)' works similar to 'command(action)'.
See embl.eft for an example using define and 'do'
origin_organism(action) origin_gene(action)
like command() but readdb() etc. reads all data from the origin organism/gene of a gene-species (not from the gene-species itself).
This function applies only to gene-species!

## Future features

### statistic

creates a character statistic of the sequence (not implemented yet)

## EXAMPLES

### sequence|format_sequence(firsttab=0;tab=10)|"SEQUENCE_";dd

fetches the default sequence, formats it, and prepends 'SEQUENCE_'.

### sequence|remove(".-")|format_sequence

get the default sequence, remove all '.-' and format it

### sequence|remove(".-")|len

the number of non '.-' symbols (sequence length )

### "[";taxonomy(tree_other,3);" -> ";taxonomy(3);"]"

shows for each species how their taxonomy changed between "tree_other" and current tree

### equals(readdb(tmp),readdb(acc))|select(echo("tmp and acc differ"),)

returns 'tmp and acc differ' if the content of the database fields 'tmp' and 'acc' differs. empty result otherwise.

### readdb(full_name)|icontains(bacillus)|compare(0)|select(echo(..),readdb(full_name))

returns the content of the 'full_name' database entry if it contains the substring 'bacillus'. Otherwise returns '..'

## BUGS

### The output of taxonomy() is not always instantly refreshed.