WinList can convert certain text files into FCS listmode files so that they can be read and analyzed. This provides a convenient way to read files from programs like Microsoft Excel and other applications that do not know about FCS file formatting.
When WinList initially opens a data files, it tries to open it as an FCS format file. If it determines the file is not FCS format and that it contains ASCII text characters, it will attempt to interpret the file as a comma-delimited or tab-delimited text file.
In the first pass, the file is scanned for the first occurrence of a comma or tab character. It will treat that first found tab or comma as the delimiter for the file.
Next, the lines are scanned for non-numeric information that can be interpreted as keyword-value pairs. For example, "Experiment Name, Covid-19 Exp 21" would be interpreted as a keyword "Experiment Name" with a value of "Covid-19 Exp 21", and it would be added to the list of keywords for the file. These lines are optional.
Example of comma-delimited text file with keywords, header row, and event data:
During this pass, the logic is also looking for a line that contains the names of the measurements - a header row. For example, "FSC,SSC,CD14 FITC,CD33 PE,CD45 PerCP,Unused,CD34 - APC,Time" on a line would be interpreted as defining the names for 8 measurements.
Example of tab-delimited text file with header row and no additional keyword information:
When a line is read that contains only numerical values, it is interpreted as the beginning of event data. It should have the same number of fields as the header row. This line and all subsequent lines will be read as the event values for the file.
If no formatting errors are encountered, the program will create an FCS file with the same name as the original file and the ".fcs" extension. The FCS file will then be read into WinList as it would normally read an FCS file.
The FCS file is not removed by WinList when it is finished, so it may be read into other FCS file readers for further analysis.