Difference between .sff files and .fq file

[edge]

Anybody knows what is the main difference between the .sff file and .fq file?

[spenthil]

.fq file: http://maq.sourceforge.net/fastq.shtml
.sff file: http://blog.malde.org/index.php/2008...binary-format/

[edge]

thanks a lot

.fq file: http://maq.sourceforge.net/fastq.shtml
.sff file: http://blog.malde.org/index.php/2008...binary-format/

[Torst]

Anybody knows what is the main difference between the .sff file and .fq file?

A .SFF file contains the FLOWGRAMS from the 454 pyrosequencing platform. The are sort of like a "run length encoding" of the genomic base pairs, and very application/platform specific.

A .FQ is a FASTQ file which contains genomic base pair information and associated quality scores. It is a generic file format.

You can process .sff down to .fq, but going the other way is not really meaningful.