How to get the best overlap

Question

[g744695539]

Hi! I have many bed files like A.bed. And B.bed is converted from a gtf.

cat A.bed
chr7    158788004   158788417
chr7    158793650   158793726
chr7    158797942   158798076
chr7    158799050   158799072

bedtools intersect -a A.bed  -b B.bed -wa -wb
chr7    158788004   158788417   chr7    158788004   158788093   ENSG00000117868.15  exon    -
chr7    158788004   158788417   chr7    158788094   158788344   ENSG00000117868.15  intron  -
chr7    158788004   158788417   chr7    158788345   158788417   ENSG00000117868.15  exon    -
chr7    158793650   158793726   chr7    158793650   158793726   ENSG00000117868.15  exon    -
chr7    158793650   158793726   chr7    158793674   158793726   ENSG00000117868.15  exon    -
chr7    158797942   158798076   chr7    158797942   158798076   ENSG00000117868.15  exon    -
chr7    158799050   158799072   chr7    158799031   158799072   ENSG00000117868.15  exon    -

Now, I hope to get the result like this. For each feature in A.bed, only output the best overlap

chr7    158788004   158788417   chr7    158788004   158788093   ENSG00000117868.15  exon    -
chr7    158788004   158788417   chr7    158788094   158788344   ENSG00000117868.15  intron  -
chr7    158788004   158788417   chr7    158788345   158788417   ENSG00000117868.15  exon    -
chr7    158793650   158793726   chr7    158793650   158793726   ENSG00000117868.15  exon    -
chr7    158797942   158798076   chr7    158797942   158798076   ENSG00000117868.15  exon    -
chr7    158799050   158799072   chr7    158799031   158799072   ENSG00000117868.15  exon    -

Is there any good way? Thanks!

[husensofteng]

it would make it easier if you could write one more line explaining the expected outcome than me comparing 16 lines manually!

[karl.stamm]

Yeah I'm not reading those tables. Maybe original poster could explain what a best overlap is? I've always been happy with bedtools overlap, maybe using some flags when I wanted certain behaviors, bedtools has a lot of options.