# Getting started with anndata

Note

This tutorial is based on a blog posts by Adam in 2021 and Alex in 2017.

In this tutorial, we introduce basic properties of the central object, AnnData (“Annotated Data”).

AnnData is specifically designed for matrix-like data. By this we mean that we have $$n$$ observations, each of which can be represented as $$d$$-dimensional vectors, where each dimension corresponds to a variable or feature. Both the rows and columns of this $$n \times d$$ matrix are special in the sense that they are indexed.

For instance, in scRNA-seq data, each row corresponds to a cell with a barcode, and each column corresponds to a gene with a gene id. Furthermore, for each cell and each gene we might have additional metadata, like (1) donor information for each cell, or (2) alternative gene symbols for each gene. Finally, we might have other unstructured metadata like color palletes to use for plotting. Without going into every fancy Python-based data structure, we think that still today no other alternative really exists that:

• Handles sparsity

• Handles unstructured data

• Handles observation- and feature-level metadata

• Is user-friendly

[1]:

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
from scipy.sparse import csr_matrix

0.8.0


## Initializing AnnData

Let’s start by building a basic AnnData object with some sparse count information, perhaps representing gene expression counts.

[2]:

counts = csr_matrix(np.random.poisson(1, size=(100, 2000)), dtype=np.float32)

[2]:

AnnData object with n_obs × n_vars = 100 × 2000


We see that AnnData provides a representation with summary stastics of the data The initial data we passed are accessible as a sparse matrix using adata.X.

[3]:

adata.X

[3]:

<100x2000 sparse matrix of type '<class 'numpy.float32'>'
with 126526 stored elements in Compressed Sparse Row format>


Now, we provide the index to both the obs and var axes using .obs_names (resp. .var_names).

[4]:

adata.obs_names = [f"Cell_{i:d}" for i in range(adata.n_obs)]

Index(['Cell_0', 'Cell_1', 'Cell_2', 'Cell_3', 'Cell_4', 'Cell_5', 'Cell_6',
'Cell_7', 'Cell_8', 'Cell_9'],
dtype='object')


### Subsetting AnnData

These index values can be used to subset the AnnData, which provides a view of the AnnData object. We can imagine this to be useful to subset the AnnData to particular cell types or gene modules of interest. The rules for subsetting AnnData are quite similar to that of a Pandas DataFrame. You can use values in the obs/var_names, boolean masks, or cell index integers.

[5]:

adata[["Cell_1", "Cell_10"], ["Gene_5", "Gene_1900"]]

[5]:

View of AnnData object with n_obs × n_vars = 2 × 2


### Observation/Variable level

So we have the core of our object and now we’d like to add metadata at both the observation and variable levels. This is pretty simple with AnnData, both adata.obs and adata.var are Pandas DataFrames.

[6]:

ct = np.random.choice(["B", "T", "Monocyte"], size=(adata.n_obs,))
adata.obs["cell_type"] = pd.Categorical(ct)  # Categoricals are preferred for efficiency

[6]:

cell_type
Cell_0 B
Cell_1 B
Cell_2 B
Cell_3 Monocyte
Cell_4 Monocyte
... ...
Cell_95 Monocyte
Cell_96 B
Cell_97 Monocyte
Cell_98 B
Cell_99 T

100 rows × 1 columns

We can also see now that the AnnData representation has been updated:

[7]:

adata

[7]:

AnnData object with n_obs × n_vars = 100 × 2000
obs: 'cell_type'


We can also subset the AnnData using these randomly generated cell types:

[8]:

bdata = adata[adata.obs.cell_type == "B"]
bdata

[8]:

View of AnnData object with n_obs × n_vars = 26 × 2000
obs: 'cell_type'


## Observation/variable-level matrices

We might also have metadata at either level that has many dimensions to it, such as a UMAP embedding of the data. For this type of metadata, AnnData has the .obsm/.varm attributes. We use keys to identify the different matrices we insert. The restriction of .obsm/.varm are that .obsm matrices must length equal to the number of observations as .n_obs and .varm matrices must length equal to .n_vars. They can each independently have different number of dimensions.

Let’s start with a randomly generated matrix that we can interpret as a UMAP embedding of the data we’d like to store, as well as some random gene-level metadata:

[9]:

adata.obsm["X_umap"] = np.random.normal(0, 1, size=(adata.n_obs, 2))

[9]:

AxisArrays with keys: X_umap


Again, the AnnData representation is updated.

[10]:

adata

[10]:

AnnData object with n_obs × n_vars = 100 × 2000
obs: 'cell_type'
obsm: 'X_umap'
varm: 'gene_stuff'


A few more notes about .obsm/.varm

1. The “array-like” metadata can originate from a Pandas DataFrame, scipy sparse matrix, or numpy dense array.

2. When using scanpy, their values (columns) are not easily plotted, where instead items from .obs are easily plotted on, e.g., UMAP plots.

AnnData has .uns, which allows for any unstructured metadata. This can be anything, like a list or a dictionary with some general information that was useful in the analysis of our data.

[11]:

adata.uns["random"] = [1, 2, 3]

[11]:

OverloadedDict, wrapping:
OrderedDict([('random', [1, 2, 3])])
['neighbors'].


## Layers

Finally, we may have different forms of our original core data, perhaps one that is normalized and one that is not. These can be stored in different layers in AnnData. For example, let’s log transform the original data and store it in a layer:

[12]:

adata.layers["log_transformed"] = np.log1p(adata.X)

[12]:

AnnData object with n_obs × n_vars = 100 × 2000
obs: 'cell_type'
uns: 'random'
obsm: 'X_umap'
varm: 'gene_stuff'
layers: 'log_transformed'


## Conversion to DataFrames

We can also ask AnnData to return us a DataFrame from one of the layers:

[13]:

adata.to_df(layer="log_transformed")

[13]:

Gene_0 Gene_1 Gene_2 Gene_3 Gene_4 Gene_5 Gene_6 Gene_7 Gene_8 Gene_9 ... Gene_1990 Gene_1991 Gene_1992 Gene_1993 Gene_1994 Gene_1995 Gene_1996 Gene_1997 Gene_1998 Gene_1999
Cell_0 1.098612 0.693147 0.000000 0.693147 0.693147 0.000000 1.386294 0.693147 0.693147 0.693147 ... 1.098612 0.000000 0.693147 0.000000 0.000000 0.693147 0.693147 0.000000 1.098612 0.693147
Cell_1 0.000000 1.098612 0.693147 0.000000 0.693147 0.693147 0.693147 0.693147 0.693147 0.000000 ... 0.693147 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.693147 1.098612 1.098612 0.000000 0.000000 1.386294
Cell_2 0.693147 0.693147 0.000000 0.693147 1.098612 0.693147 0.693147 0.000000 0.693147 1.098612 ... 0.000000 0.000000 0.693147 0.693147 1.386294 0.693147 1.098612 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
Cell_3 0.000000 1.098612 0.000000 0.693147 1.791759 0.693147 0.000000 0.000000 1.098612 0.000000 ... 1.609438 1.098612 0.693147 0.000000 1.098612 0.000000 0.693147 0.693147 0.693147 0.693147
Cell_4 0.693147 0.000000 0.693147 0.000000 0.693147 0.693147 0.000000 0.693147 0.693147 1.098612 ... 0.693147 1.098612 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.098612 0.000000 1.098612 1.609438 0.693147
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Cell_95 0.693147 0.693147 0.000000 1.098612 0.693147 1.098612 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 ... 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.098612 0.000000 0.000000 0.693147 0.693147 0.693147 0.000000
Cell_96 0.693147 1.098612 1.386294 0.693147 1.098612 0.000000 1.609438 0.693147 0.693147 0.693147 ... 1.098612 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.693147 1.386294 0.000000 1.386294 0.000000
Cell_97 0.000000 0.693147 1.098612 0.693147 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.386294 0.000000 ... 0.693147 0.000000 0.693147 0.000000 1.386294 1.386294 0.000000 0.000000 0.693147 0.000000
Cell_98 0.693147 1.098612 0.000000 0.693147 0.693147 0.000000 0.693147 0.000000 0.693147 1.098612 ... 0.693147 0.000000 0.000000 1.098612 0.693147 0.000000 0.693147 0.693147 0.693147 1.098612
Cell_99 0.693147 0.693147 0.000000 1.791759 0.000000 1.098612 0.000000 1.098612 1.609438 0.693147 ... 1.098612 1.098612 0.693147 0.693147 1.098612 0.693147 0.000000 0.000000 0.693147 0.693147

100 rows × 2000 columns

We see that the .obs_names/.var_names are used in the creation of this Pandas object.

## Writing the results to disk

AnnData comes with its own persistent HDF5-based file format: h5ad. If string columns with small number of categories aren’t yet categoricals, AnnData will auto-transform to categoricals.

[14]:

adata.write('my_results.h5ad', compression="gzip")

[15]:

!h5ls 'my_results.h5ad'

X                        Group
layers                   Group
obs                      Group
obsm                     Group
obsp                     Group
uns                      Group
var                      Group
varm                     Group
varp                     Group


## Wrapping up the introduction

AnnData has become the standard for single-cell analysis in Python and for good reason – it’s straightforward to use and faciliatates more reproducible analyses with it’s key-based storage. It’s even becoming easier to convert to the popular R-based formats for single-cell analysis.

Keep reading on to better understand “views”, on-disk backing, and other details.

## Views and copies

For the fun of it, let’s look at another metadata use case. Imagine that the observations come from instruments characterizing 10 readouts in a multi-year study with samples taken from different subjects at different sites. We’d typically get that information in some format and then store it in a DataFrame:

[16]:

obs_meta = pd.DataFrame({
'time_yr': np.random.choice([0, 2, 4, 8], adata.n_obs),
'subject_id': np.random.choice(['subject 1', 'subject 2', 'subject 4', 'subject 8'], adata.n_obs),
'instrument_type': np.random.choice(['type a', 'type b'], adata.n_obs),
'site': np.random.choice(['site x', 'site y'], adata.n_obs),
},
index=adata.obs.index,    # these are the same IDs of observations as above!
)


This is how we join the readout data with the metadata. Of course, the first argument of the following call for X could also just be a DataFrame.

[17]:

adata = ad.AnnData(adata.X, obs=obs_meta, var=adata.var)


Now we again have a single data container that keeps track of everything.

[18]:

print(adata)

AnnData object with n_obs × n_vars = 100 × 2000
obs: 'time_yr', 'subject_id', 'instrument_type', 'site'


Subsetting the joint data matrix can be important to focus on subsets of variables or observations, or to define train-test splits for a machine learning model.

Note

Similar to numpy arrays, AnnData objects can either hold actual data or reference another AnnData object. In the later case, they are referred to as “view”.

Subsetting AnnData objects always returns views, which has two advantages:

• no new memory is allocated

• it is possible to modify the underlying AnnData object

You can get an actual AnnData object from a view by calling .copy() on the view. Usually, this is not necessary, as any modification of elements of a view (calling .[] on an attribute of the view) internally calls .copy() and makes the view an AnnData object that holds actual data. See the example below.

[19]:

adata

[19]:

AnnData object with n_obs × n_vars = 100 × 2000
obs: 'time_yr', 'subject_id', 'instrument_type', 'site'


Note

Indexing into AnnData will assume that integer arguments to [] behave like .iloc in pandas, whereas string arguments behave like .loc. AnnData always assumes string indices.

[20]:

adata[:5, ['Gene_1', 'Gene_3']]

[20]:

View of AnnData object with n_obs × n_vars = 5 × 2
obs: 'time_yr', 'subject_id', 'instrument_type', 'site'


This is a view! If we want an AnnData that holds the data in memory, let’s call .copy()

[21]:

adata_subset = adata[:5, ['Gene_1', 'Gene_3']].copy()


For a view, we can also set the first 3 elements of a column.

[22]:

print(adata[:3, 'Gene_1'].X.toarray().tolist())
adata[:3, 'Gene_1'].X = [0, 0, 0]

[[1.0], [2.0], [1.0]]
[[0.0], [0.0], [0.0]]


If you try to access parts of a view of an AnnData, the content will be auto-copied and a data-storing object will be generated.

[23]:

adata_subset = adata[:3, ['Gene_1', 'Gene_2']]

[24]:

adata_subset

[24]:

View of AnnData object with n_obs × n_vars = 3 × 2
obs: 'time_yr', 'subject_id', 'instrument_type', 'site'

[25]:

adata_subset.obs['foo'] = range(3)

/var/folders/bd/43q20k0n6z15tdfzxvd22r7c0000gn/T/ipykernel_25768/2955902014.py:1: ImplicitModificationWarning: Trying to modify attribute .obs of view, initializing view as actual.


Now adata_subset stores the actual data and is no longer just a reference to adata.

[26]:

adata_subset

[26]:

AnnData object with n_obs × n_vars = 3 × 2
obs: 'time_yr', 'subject_id', 'instrument_type', 'site', 'foo'


Evidently, you can use all of pandas to slice with sequences or boolean indices.

[27]:

adata[adata.obs.time_yr.isin([2, 4])].obs.head()

[27]:

time_yr subject_id instrument_type site
Cell_1 4 subject 4 type b site y
Cell_2 4 subject 1 type a site y
Cell_3 4 subject 1 type b site x
Cell_4 2 subject 1 type b site x
Cell_6 2 subject 1 type b site x

## Partial reading of large data

If a single .h5ad is very large, you can partially read it into memory by using backed mode:

[28]:

adata = ad.read('my_results.h5ad', backed='r')

[29]:

adata.isbacked

[29]:

True


If you do this, you’ll need to remember that the AnnData object has an open connection to the file used for reading:

[30]:

adata.filename

[30]:

PosixPath('my_results.h5ad')


As we’re using it in read-only mode, we can’t damage anything. To proceed with this tutorial, we still need to explicitly close it:

[31]:

adata.file.close()


As usual, you should rather use with statements to avoid dangling open files (up-coming feature).

Manipulating the object on disk is possible, but experimental for sparse data. Hence, we leave it out of this tutorial.