Secondary Delimiter

Specify a second string enclosed in double quotation marks to be used to further separate values of the Annotation 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:

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

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