Re: [Psidev-ms-dev] Spectra with length 0 in mzData files

[simon a. (B. <sim...@bb...>]

On 23 Aug 2005, at 13:38, Tom Blackwell wrote:

> Simon and Randy  -
>
> Both of you are pointing to the need for explicit "missing value" codes
> in the schema -- in this case, a "missing spectrum" code.  Either it's
> a separate field, "spectrum supplied" which is normally true, or it's a
> reserved value in some other field, say 'length="0"' as below, with an
> explanation in the schema explaining that 'length="0"' MEANS that the
> actual spectrum is missing, and what's there in its place should have
> length 1 and should be ignored.

It certainly seems odd to me to have this extra check value which 
doesn't always function as expected.  At the very least this behaviour 
should be documented in the annotated schema files (which I don't think 
it is at the moment).

At the risk of baring my ignorance of XML - if there are legitimate 
cases where this field is not supplied would this not suggest that the 
field shouldn't be mandatory in the schema?  As long as the 
mzArrayBinary and internArrayBindary elements are present a parser 
should be able to cope with the data element being absent or having a 
length of 0.

Simon.
-- 
Simon Andrews PhD
Bioinformatics Dept.
The Babraham Institute

sim...@bb...
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