Glossary¶
- computed identifier¶
An identifier that is generated from the object’s data. Multiple groups who generated computed identifiers the same way will generate the same identifier for the same underlying data.
- digest, ga4gh_digest¶
A digest is a digital fingerprint of a block of binary data. A digest is always the same size, regardless of the size of the input data. It is statistically extremely unlikely for two fingerprints to match when the underlying data are distinct.
- identifiable object¶
An identifiable object in VRS is any data structure for which VRS defines a serialization method, which is the precursor to generating a computational digest. All Sequence, Location, and Variation types are identifiable.
- serialization¶
The process of converting an object in memory into a stream of bytes that may be sent via the network, saved in a database, or written to a file.