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Selection Language

Selections (or 'Sele' for short) strings can be input at various places in the user interface or when scripting. They are used to limit which atoms/residues are shown in a [molecular representation]{@tutorial molecular-representations} or what atoms are loaded from a trajectory.

Example

Select the side-chain and C-alpha atoms plus the backbone nitrogen in case of proline. not backbone or .CA or (PRO and .N) This selection is useful to display the sidechains together with a backbone trace. Hence there is also the keyword sidechainAttached for it.

Language

Keywords

Expressions

Some of these expressions can be combined (in this order) - residue numer (range), insertion code, chain name, atom name, alternate location, model - like this

// select C-alpha atoms of residue 10 with insertion code A
// from chain F in model 0 at alternate location C
10^A:F.CA%C/0

which is the same as

10 and ^A and :F and .CA and %C and /0

Single expressions may be left out as long as the order (see above) is kept, for example:

:A/0 # select chain A from model 0

Atomindex

A list of atom indices can be given as a comma seperated list (no spaces in between) prefixed with the @ character.

@0,1,4,5,11,23,42

Logical operators (in order of binding strength)

Additionally, parentheses () can be used for grouping: :A and ( 1 or 10 or 100 ) # select residues 1, 10 and 100 from chain A