Insert a newline character every 10 characters in a string using Julia

Question

I want to insert a newline character every 10 characters in a protein sequence :

seq="MSKNKSPLLNESEKMMSEMLPMKVSQSKLNYEEKVYIPTTIRNRKQHCFRRFFPYIALFQ"

In Perl, it is very easy :

$seq=~s/(.{10})/$1\n/g ; # does the job!

perl -e '$seq="MSKNKSPLLNESEKMMSEMLPMKVSQSKLNYEEKVYIPTTIRNRKQHCFRRFFPYIALFQ"; $seq=~s/(.{10})/$1\n/g; print $seq'
MSKNKSPLLN
ESEKMMSEML
PMKVSQSKLN
YEEKVYIPTT
IRNRKQHCFR
RFFPYIALFQ

In Julia,

replace(seq, r"(.{10})" , "\n")

does not work because I don't know a way to get the capture group (.{10}) and substitute it with itself + "\n"

julia> replace(seq, r"(.{10})" , "\n")
"\n\n\n\n\n\n"

So to do that, I need 2 steps :

    julia> a=matchall(r"(.{1,10})" ,seq)
    6-element Array{SubString{UTF8String},1}:
     "MSKNKSPLLN"
     "ESEKMMSEML"
     "PMKVSQSKLN"
     "YEEKVYIPTT"
     "IRNRKQHCFR"
     "RFFPYIALFQ"

    julia> b=join(a, "\n")
    "MSKNKSPLLN\nESEKMMSEML\nPMKVSQSKLN\nYEEKVYIPTT\nIRNRKQHCFR\nRFFPYIALFQ"

    julia> println(b)
    MSKNKSPLLN
    ESEKMMSEML
    PMKVSQSKLN
    YEEKVYIPTT
    IRNRKQHCFR
    RFFPYIALFQ

# Caution :    
a=matchall(r"(.{10})" ,seq) # wrong if seq is not exactly a multiple of 10 !

julia> seq
"MSKNKSPLLNESEKMMSEMLPMKVSQSKLNYEEKVYIPTTIRNRKQHCFRRFFPYIAL"

julia> matchall(r"(.{10})" ,seq)
5-element Array{SubString{UTF8String},1}:
"MSKNKSPLLN"
"ESEKMMSEML"
"PMKVSQSKLN"
"YEEKVYIPTT"
"IRNRKQHCFR"

julia> matchall(r"(.{1,10})" ,seq)
6-element Array{SubString{UTF8String},1}:
"MSKNKSPLLN"
"ESEKMMSEML"
"PMKVSQSKLN"
"YEEKVYIPTT"
"IRNRKQHCFR"
"RFFPYIAL" 

Is there a one step solution or a better (faster) way?

Just for fun a benchmark with all these interesting answers ! (updated with julia 5.0)

function loop(a)
 last = 0
 #create the interval, in your case 10
 salt = 10
 #iterate in string (starts in the 10th value, don't forget julia use 1 to first index)
 for i in salt:salt+1:length(a)
    # replace the string for a new one with '\n'
    a = string(a[1:i], '\n', a[i+1:length(a)])
    last = Int64(i)
 end
 # replace the rest
 a = string(a[1:length(a) - last % salt + 1], '\n', a[length(a) - last % salt + 2:length(a)])
 println(a)
end

function regex1(seq)
  a=matchall(r"(.{1,10})" ,seq)
  b=join(a, "\n")
  println(b)
end

function regex2(seq)
  a=join(split(replace(seq, r"(.{10})", s"\1 ")), "\n")
  println(a)
end

function regex3(seq)
  a=replace(seq, r"(.{10})", Base.SubstitutionString("\\1\n"))
  a= chomp(a) # because there is a new line at the end
  println(a)
end

function intrapad(seq::String)
  buf = IOBuffer((length(seq)*11)>>3) # big enough buffer
  for i=1:10:length(seq)
    write(buf,SubString(seq,i,i+9),'\n')
  end
  #return
  print(takebuf_string(buf))
end

function join_substring(seq)
  a=join((SubString(seq,i,i+9) for i=1:10:length(seq)),'\n')
  println(a)
end

seq="MSKNKSPLLNESEKMMSEMLPMKVSQSKLNYEEKVYIPTTIRNRKQHCFRRFFPYIALFQ"

for i = 1:5
  println("loop :")
  @time loop(seq)
  println("regex1 :")
  @time regex1(seq)
  println("regex2 :")
  @time regex2(seq)
  println("regex3 :")
  @time regex3(seq)
  println("intrapad :")
  @time intrapad(seq)
  println("join substring :")
  @time join_substring(seq)
end

I changed the benchmark to execute 5 times @time and I post here the results after 5 execution of @time :

loop :
MSKNKSPLLN
ESEKMMSEML
PMKVSQSKLN
YEEKVYIPTT
IRNRKQHCFR
RFFPYIA
LFQ
  0.000013 seconds (53 allocations: 3.359 KB)
regex1 :
MSKNKSPLLN
ESEKMMSEML
PMKVSQSKLN
YEEKVYIPTT
IRNRKQHCFR
RFFPYIALFQ
  0.000013 seconds (49 allocations: 1.344 KB)
regex2 :
MSKNKSPLLN
ESEKMMSEML
PMKVSQSKLN
YEEKVYIPTT
IRNRKQHCFR
RFFPYIALFQ
  0.000017 seconds (47 allocations: 1.703 KB)
regex3 :
MSKNKSPLLN
ESEKMMSEML
PMKVSQSKLN
YEEKVYIPTT
IRNRKQHCFR
RFFPYIALFQ
  0.000013 seconds (31 allocations: 976 bytes)
intrapad :
MSKNKSPLLN
ESEKMMSEML
PMKVSQSKLN
YEEKVYIPTT
IRNRKQHCFR
RFFPYIALFQ
  0.000007 seconds (9 allocations: 608 bytes)
join substring :
MSKNKSPLLN
ESEKMMSEML
PMKVSQSKLN
YEEKVYIPTT
IRNRKQHCFR
RFFPYIALFQ
  0.000012 seconds (21 allocations: 800 bytes)

Intrapad is now first ;)

Answer 1

I step by the required line-length through a range to format DNA sequences. In the following snippet, the step is 60.

last_x = 0
new_seq = ""
for x in 1:60:length(seq)
    if x+59 < length(seq[x:end])
        new_seq = join([new_seq, seq[x:(x+59)], "\n"])
    end
    last_x = x
end
new_seq = join([new_seq, seq[last_x:end], "\n"])

If seq is

ATTCGACTCTTATGCCTATCGCTAGCTAGCATCTATTCGACTCTTATGCCTATCGCTAGCTAGCATCAATTCGACTCTTATGCCTATCGCTAGCTAGCATCGATTCGACTCTTATGCCTATCGCTAGCTAGCATCCATTCGACTCTTATGCCTATCGCTAGCTAGCATCTATTCGACTCTTATGCCTATCGCTAGCTAGCATCAATTCGACTCTTATGCCTATCGCTAGCTAGCATCGATTCGACTCTTA

then, the printed output becomes

println(new_seq)
ATTCGACTCTTATGCCTATCGCTAGCTAGCATCTATTCGACTCTTATGCCTATCGCTAGC
TAGCATCAATTCGACTCTTATGCCTATCGCTAGCTAGCATCGATTCGACTCTTATGCCTA
TCGACTCTTA

Answer 2

Like @daycaster suggests, you can use s"\1" as a replacement string to support capture groups. The trouble is that the special s"" string syntax doesn't support special characters like \n. You can get around this by manually constructing a SubstitutionString object, but then you need to escape the \ in \1:

julia> replace(seq, r"(.{10})", Base.SubstitutionString("\\1\n"))
"MSKNKSPLLN\nESEKMMSEML\nPMKVSQSKLN\nYEEKVYIPTT\nIRNRKQHCFR\nRFFPYIALFQ\n"