what does ''IdList'' returned by the esearch() method mean ?

Question

[abdelmalek.benmeziane]

Hi

First we know that the esearch(db="",term="") function searches and retrieves identifiers, but what I didn't understand is the "IdList" attribute, as in the following script :

from Bio import Enterz
Enterz.email = "[e-mail]"
handle = Enterz.esearch(db="nucleotide", term="Cypripedioideae[Orgn] AND matK[Gene]")
record = Enterz.read(handle)

print(record["IdList"])
-------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- -----------------------
Output:
['844174433', '937957673', '694174838', '944541375', '575524123', '575524121', '575524119', '575524117', '57552415', ' 575524107', '575524105', '575524103', '575524101', '575524099', '575524097', '575524095', '575524093']

My question is : What does "IdList" mean?

Answer 1

[GenoMax]

Those are GI identifiers. Here is one example from your list.

They are in internal use at NCBI but they are deprecated for end-users so don't plan to use them. Use accession numbers instead.

[abdelmalek.benmeziane]

Could you explain that deeper, please ?

[GenoMax]

They are a unique numeric record identifier that was in use at NCBI for a long time. They are not being assigned to new data. Please see the announcement I linked in second sentence above for more.

[abdelmalek.benmeziane]

you mean like in database, each record has its own ID ?

[GenoMax]

Correct.

[abdelmalek.benmeziane]

thank you very much <3 <3