How to concatename file names in Snakemake?

Question

I want to pass a series of files (e.g., a, b) to a program prog like: prog a,b.

Is there a way to do this in Snakemake?

My attempt is:

rule run_prog:
  input: "a", "b"
  output: "output"
  run: "prog {input}"

But the actual command Snakemake generated is prog a b instead of prog a,b.

Any solution to pass a comma concatenated file names to Snakemake?

@Chris_Rands that works, is there a general solution, as there can be ~20 input files. Thanks! — zhanxw, Apr 20, 2020 at 15:22

cmdoret · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-22 09:28:53Z

1

You can use join to convert the list of input file into a string. I think this would work as expected.:

rule run_prog:
    input: "a", "b"
    output: "output"
    run: f"prog {','.join(input)}"

answered Apr 21, 2020 at 9:01

cmdoret

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$\begingroup$ This works great. It works for f"prog {','.join(input.variable)}" if I define variable under input: section. Can you explain why have to use input[:] instead of input? $\endgroup$
– zhanxw
Apr 22, 2020 at 3:19
1

$\begingroup$ Right, using input by itself is the same ! I edited my answer. $\endgroup$
– cmdoret
Apr 22, 2020 at 9:28

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