My question is simple. Is there any method to query a gene name (for example ARAF, CYP3A4, etc) to Ensembl ID? I have a lot of gene names and I need to do it programmatically. I have tried biomart but the result is zero. Probably I use it wrong. Anyone can help?
You will see a change in the left panel which now contains options for 'Filters' and 'Attributes'
Select the 'Filters' option and click on the 'Gene' tab that appears amongst many other ones
Select 'Input external references ID list' and against it, choose the 'HGNC symbol(s)' option from the drop down list
Either paste your gene list in the text box below or upload a text file containing your gene list
After you have entered your gene list, click on the 'Attributes' option from the left main panel
Again select the 'Gene' tab that appears amongst many other ones
Select 'Ensembl Gene ID' and 'Associated Gene Name'. These are the columns that will appear in your output file. If you want more IDs, select them as well
Click on 'Results' in the main left panel, and you should see the list containing two columns for Gene ID and Ensembl ID. Export the results as required.
In case you are still unable to get results, try DAVID gene ID conversion tool. But BioMart is the standard for this, hence preferably go for BioMart.
Search this site for BioMart examples. There are many.