Locations on a Plate and slices

PyPlate follows the pandas convention of having both integer- and label-based indices for referencing wells in Plates.

• When row or column specifiers are provided as integers, they are assumed to be integer indices (1, 2, 3, …).

• Integer indices are 1-based, meaning that the first row or column is referred to as 1, not 0.

• When specifiers are provided as strings, they are assumed to be label indices (“A”, “B”, “C”, …).

• By default, rows in plates are given alphabetical labels “A”, “B”, “C”, and columns in plates are given numerical labels “1”, “2”, “3”.

• However, rows and columns are always given integer indices 1, 2, 3, ….

Here are some ways to refer to a specific well:

• String Method: “A:1”

• Tuple Method: (‘A’, 1)

Note

Colons (‘:’) within strings are used to separate row and column labels. This does not denote slicing.

Here are some alternate ways to refer to well B3:

“B:3”

('B', 3)

(2,3)

You can refer to multiple wells as a list:

plate[[('A', 1), ('B', 2), ('C', 3), 'D:4']] or plate[['A:1, 'B:2', 'C:3', 'D:4']]

Slice Notation

To get a range of rows, you can use the following syntax:

• plate['A':'C'] will return rows 1, 2, and 3 (‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’).

• plate[1:3] will return rows 1, 2, and 3.

  

• plate['D':] will return rows 4, 5, 6 … to the end of the plate.

  

To get a range of columns, you can use the following syntax:

• plate[:, '1':'3'] will return columns 1, 2, and 3 (‘1’, ‘2’, and ‘3’).

• plate[:, 1:3] will return columns 1, 2, 3.

  

• plate[:, '4':] will return columns 4, 5, 6 … to the end of the plate.

  

You can get a rectangular slice of the plate by using both row and column slices:

• plate['A':'C', '1':'3'] will return the region bound by ‘A:1’ to ‘C:3’ inclusive.

  

• To make a rectangular slice of B:2 to D:3, you can use:

  plate['B':'D', 2:3]
  

  This will be three rows of two columns, specifically referring to B:2, B:3, C:2, C:3, D:2, and D:3.