Concatenated Text File Splitter is a handy utility for SEQUEST that splits concatenated files and re-creates individual files. When analyzing tandem mass spectral data files with SEQUEST or X!Tandem, we concatenate together separate spectra files (.Dta files) into a single file, whose name ends in _Dta.txt. The Concatenated Text File Splitter can be used to split apart the concatenated file to re-create the individual text files (creating one file per spectrum). This is necessary if you wish to re-search the data with SEQUEST (which reads individual .Dta files).

The result files produced by sequest are called .Out files. We also concatenate them together to form a single _Out.txt file. Again, the Concatenated Text File Splitter can be used to split apart the _Out.txt file to re-recreate the separate .Out files.

When creating the .dta or .out files, you can use the /F switch to filter the spectra and only extract spectra of interest. Alternatively, you can use the /T switch to create a new, filtered _dta.txt or _out.txt file, again, only containing the spectra of interest.

To run:
1. Open a command prompt window
2. Enter the path that points to the program (e.g. cd c:\Program Files\ConcatenatedFileSplitter\ for typical installation)
3. Enter the executable filename (i.e. ConcatenatedTextFileSplitter.exe), then a space, then /I: followed by the full path to the text file in question (e.g ConcatenatedTextFileSplitter.exe /I:c:\Temp\YourDirectory\Fileofinterest_dta.txt)
4. Wait until the program is finished.

Requirements:
* NET Framework

The license of this software is Freeware, you can free download and free use this file splitter software.