Secondary Delimiter

Specify a second string enclosed in double quotation marks to be used to further separate values of the Annotation {link}{Emphasis}Category Variable into distinct values, within major categories separated by the primary delimiter.

Please note that in the case of GO annotation categories such as those provided by Affymetrix, a major annotation category such as:

5887 // integral to plasma membrane // traceable author statement /// 16020 // membrane // inferred from electronic annotation

can contain several items separated by secondary delimiters (for example, " // "), which should remain linked together to capture the identifier for, function of, and source of the functional information. For such data, a secondary delimiter should typically NOT be specified, since in using it, category identifiers and functions can become dissociated from one another. For this reason, only parse a column of GO annotations where:

major categories are separated by " /// "
minor categories are separated by " // "

using:

" /// " as the primary delimiter, and
" // " as the secondary delimiter,

if you are sure that you want to do an enrichment analysis on ALL distinct fields separated by either:

" /// " or
" // ".

 

Note the blanks ( ) at the beginning and ending of these two strings, which help to appropriately separate the entries, assuming blanks always surround the slashes in the entries.

To Specify a Secondary Delimiter:

8 Type the delimiter into the text field, using appropriate syntax (as noted above). Be sure to enclose the string in double quotation marks (“”).

8 If you change your mind and would like to reset the field, click .