| abstract |
A method for storing, retrieving, comparing and analyzing complex carbohydrates, by representing complex carbohydrates with a simple linear code, which is preferably also able to represent branches within the carbohydrate structure. The method of the present invention for converting the carbohydrate structure to such a linear code includes parsing each component of the structure; separately demarcating each branch within the structure; and then converting each component to a symbolic representation which may optionally be alphabetic, numeric, or a combination thereof. |