\name{read.ilmn}
\alias{read.ilmn}
\title{Read Illumina Expression Data}
\description{Read Illumina summary probe profile files and summary control probe profile files}
\usage{
read.ilmn(files=NULL, ctrlfiles=NULL, path=NULL, ctrlpath=NULL,
probeid="Probe",  annotation=c("TargetID", "SYMBOL"), expr="AVG_Signal", other.columns=NULL, 
sep="\t", quote="\"", verbose=TRUE, ...)
}
\arguments{
  \item{files}{ character vector giving the names of the summary probe profile files.}
  \item{ctrlfiles}{ character vector giving the names of the summary control probe profile files.}
  \item{path}{ character string giving the directory containing the summary probe profile files. The default is the current working directory.}
  \item{ctrlpath}{ character string giving the directory containing the summary control probe profile files. The default is the current working directory.}
  \item{probeid}{ character string giving the name of the probe identifier column.}
  \item{annotation}{ character vector giving possible names of the annotation column. It could be called "TargetID" or "SYMBOL" depending on which version of BeadStudio is used.}
  \item{expr}{ character string giving the keyword in the names of the expression intensity columns.}
  \item{other.columns}{ character vector giving the keywords in the names of extra columns required, such as "Detection", "Avg_NBEADS", "BEAD_STDEV" etc. Each keyword corresponds to one type of columns.}
  \item{sep}{ the field separator character.}
  \item{quote}{ character string of characters to be treated as quote marks.}
  \item{verbose}{ logical, \code{TRUE} to report names of profile files being read.}
  \item{...}{ any other parameters are passed on to \code{\link{read.columns}}.}
  }
\details{
Illumina BeadStudio ouputs probe intensities (regular probe intensities) and control probe intensities to summary probe profile files (containing regular probes) and summary control probe profile files, respectively.
If both \code{files} and \code{ctrlfiles} are not \code{NULL}, this function will combine the data read from the two file types and save them to an \code{\link{EListRaw-class}} object.
If one of them is \code{NULL}, then only the required data are read in.

Probe types are indicated in the \code{Status} column of \code{genes}, a component of the returned \code{\link{EListRaw-class}} object.
There are totally seven types of control probes including \code{negative}, \code{biotin}, \code{labeling}, \code{cy3_hyb}, \code{housekeeping}, \code{high_stringency_hyb} or \code{low_stringency_hyb}.
Regular probes have the probe type \code{regular}.
The \code{Status} column will not be created if \code{ctrlfiles} is \code{NULL}.

To read in columns other than \code{probeid}, \code{annotation} and \code{expr}, users needs to specify keywords in \code{other.columns}.
One keyword corresponds to one type of columns.
Examples of keywords are "Detection", "Avg_NBEADS", "BEAD_STDEV" etc.
}

\value{ 
An \code{\link{EListRaw-class}} object with the following components:
\item{E}{ numeric matrix of raw intensities.}
\item{genes}{ data.frame of probe annotation.}
\item{targets}{ data.frame of sample information.}
\item{other}{ list of other column data.}
}

\author{Wei Shi and Gordon K Smyth}

\seealso{ 

\code{\link{read.ilmn.targets}} reads in Illumina expression data using the file information extracted from a target data frame which is often created by the \code{\link{readTargets}} function.

\code{\link{neqc}} performs normexp by control background correction, log transformation and quantile between-array normalization for Illumina expression data.

\code{\link{normexp.fit.control}} estimates the parameters of the normal+exponential convolution model with the help of negative control probes.

\code{\link{propexpr}} estimates the proportion of expressed probes in a microarray.
}

\examples{
\dontrun{
x <- read.ilmn(files="sample probe profile.txt",ctrlfiles="control probe profile.txt")
}
}

\keyword{IO}