"obabel -a..." - Extra Options for Input Reading

This section provides a tutorial example on how to pass extra options to Open Babel 'obabel' command for reading molecule data in a specific format.

When you are reading molecule data in a specific input format, Open Babel "obabel" command may support some extra options just for that data format.

If you want to pass extra options to "obabel" to read input data of a specific format, you need to use one or more "-a..." options in the "obabel" command line as shown in the following syntax:

babel input_section output_section [-aX...] [-aY...] ...

# "X..." and "Y..." are extra options for reading input data.

For example, when "obabel" is reading input data in "sdf" format, it supports an option called "T", which tells "obabel" to read only the "title" part of each molecule. To specify this "T" option for reading data, you can enter it as "-aT" in the command line as shown below:

herong$ obabel molecule.sdf -o sdf -aT

20009
 OpenBabel05202015543D

  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0999 V2000
M  END
$$$$
1 molecule converted

As you can see, the "-aT" option worked properly.

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 SMILES (Simplified Molecular-Input Line-Entry System)

 Open Babel: The Open Source Chemistry Toolbox

Using Open Babel Command: "obabel"

 What Is "obabel" Command

 "obabel -i ..." - Input Data Format and Source

 "obabel -o ... -O" - Output Data Format and Destination

 "obabel -... --..." - Generic Conversion Options

 "obabel" Command Option Argument Syntax

 "obabel ... --gen2D" - Calculated 2D Coordinates

 "obabel ... -f # -l #" - Split Large Molecule File

 "obabel -h/-d" - Add/Remove Hydrogens in Molecule Data

 "obabel --append ..." - Calculate Molecule Properties

 "obabel -L formats" - List of File Formats Supported

"obabel -a..." - Extra Options for Input Reading

 "obabel -x..." - Extra Options for Output Writing

 "obabel" vs. "babel" Open Babel Commands

 Generating SVG Pictures with Open Babel

 Substructure Search with Open Babel

 Similarity Search with Open Babel

 Fingerprint Index for Fastsearch with Open Babel

 Stereochemistry with Open Babel

 Command Line Tools Provided by Open Babel

 RDKit: Open-Source Cheminformatics Software

 rdkit.Chem.rdchem - The Core Module

 rdkit.Chem.rdmolfiles - Molecular File Module

 rdkit.Chem.rdDepictor - Compute 2D Coordinates

 rdkit.Chem.Draw - Handle Molecule Images

 Molecule Substructure Search with RDKit

 rdkit.Chem.rdmolops - Molecule Operations

 Daylight Fingerprint Generator in RDKit

 Morgan Fingerprint Generator in RDKit

 RDKit Performance on Substructure Search

 Introduction to Molecular Fingerprints

 OCSR (Optical Chemical Structure Recognition)

 AlphaFold - Protein Structure Prediction

 Resources and Tools

 Cheminformatics Related Terminologies

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB