VCF/BCF Basics

View and query variant files using bcftools and cyvcf2.

Format Overview

Format	Description	Use Case
VCF	Text format, human-readable	Debugging, small files
VCF.gz	Compressed VCF (bgzip)	Standard distribution
BCF	Binary VCF	Fast processing, large files

VCF Format Structure

code

##fileformat=VCFv4.2
##INFO=<ID=DP,Number=1,Type=Integer,Description="Total Depth">
##FORMAT=<ID=GT,Number=1,Type=String,Description="Genotype">
##FORMAT=<ID=DP,Number=1,Type=Integer,Description="Read Depth">
#CHROM  POS     ID      REF     ALT     QUAL    FILTER  INFO    FORMAT  SAMPLE1
chr1    1000    rs123   A       G       30      PASS    DP=50   GT:DP   0/1:25

Header Lines (##)

•##fileformat - VCF version
•##INFO - INFO field definitions
•##FORMAT - FORMAT field definitions
•##FILTER - Filter definitions
•##contig - Reference contigs
•##reference - Reference genome

Column Header (#CHROM)

Fixed columns: CHROM, POS, ID, REF, ALT, QUAL, FILTER, INFO, FORMAT Followed by sample columns

Data Columns

Column	Description
CHROM	Chromosome
POS	1-based position
ID	Variant identifier (e.g., rs number)
REF	Reference allele
ALT	Alternate allele(s), comma-separated
QUAL	Phred-scaled quality score
FILTER	PASS or filter name
INFO	Semicolon-separated key=value pairs
FORMAT	Colon-separated format keys
SAMPLE	Colon-separated values matching FORMAT

bcftools view

View VCF

bash

bcftools view input.vcf.gz | head

View Header Only

bash

bcftools view -h input.vcf.gz

View Without Header

bash

bcftools view -H input.vcf.gz | head

View Specific Region

bash

bcftools view input.vcf.gz chr1:1000000-2000000

View Specific Samples

bash

bcftools view -s sample1,sample2 input.vcf.gz

Exclude Samples

bash

bcftools view -s ^sample3 input.vcf.gz

bcftools query

Extract specific fields in custom format.

Basic Query

bash

bcftools query -f '%CHROM\t%POS\t%REF\t%ALT\n' input.vcf.gz

Query with INFO Fields

bash

bcftools query -f '%CHROM\t%POS\t%INFO/DP\t%INFO/AF\n' input.vcf.gz

Query with Sample Fields

bash

bcftools query -f '%CHROM\t%POS[\t%GT]\n' input.vcf.gz

Query Specific Samples

bash

bcftools query -f '%CHROM\t%POS[\t%SAMPLE=%GT]\n' -s sample1,sample2 input.vcf.gz

Include Header

bash

bcftools query -H -f '%CHROM\t%POS\t%REF\t%ALT\n' input.vcf.gz

Common Format Specifiers

Specifier	Description
`%CHROM`	Chromosome
`%POS`	Position
`%ID`	Variant ID
`%REF`	Reference allele
`%ALT`	Alternate allele
`%QUAL`	Quality score
`%FILTER`	Filter status
`%INFO/TAG`	INFO field value
`%TYPE`	Variant type (snp, indel, etc.)
`[%GT]`	Genotype (per sample)
`[%DP]`	Depth (per sample)
`[%SAMPLE]`	Sample name
`\n`	Newline
`\t`	Tab

Format Conversion

VCF to BCF

bash

bcftools view -Ob -o output.bcf input.vcf.gz

BCF to VCF

bash

bcftools view -Ov -o output.vcf input.bcf

Compress VCF (bgzip)

bash

bgzip input.vcf
# Creates input.vcf.gz

Index VCF/BCF

bash

bcftools index input.vcf.gz
# Creates input.vcf.gz.csi

bcftools index -t input.vcf.gz
# Creates input.vcf.gz.tbi (tabix index)

Output Format Options

Flag	Format
`-Ov`	Uncompressed VCF
`-Oz`	Compressed VCF (bgzip)
`-Ou`	Uncompressed BCF
`-Ob`	Compressed BCF

Genotype Encoding

Genotype	Meaning
`0/0`	Homozygous reference
`0/1`	Heterozygous
`1/1`	Homozygous alternate
`1/2`	Heterozygous (two different alts)
`./.`	Missing
`0\|1`	Phased heterozygous

cyvcf2 Python Alternative

Open and Iterate

python

from cyvcf2 import VCF

vcf = VCF('input.vcf.gz')
for variant in vcf:
    print(f'{variant.CHROM}:{variant.POS} {variant.REF}>{variant.ALT[0]}')

Access Variant Properties

python

from cyvcf2 import VCF

for variant in VCF('input.vcf.gz'):
    print(f'Chrom: {variant.CHROM}')
    print(f'Pos: {variant.POS}')
    print(f'ID: {variant.ID}')
    print(f'Ref: {variant.REF}')
    print(f'Alt: {variant.ALT}')  # List
    print(f'Qual: {variant.QUAL}')
    print(f'Filter: {variant.FILTER}')
    print(f'Type: {variant.var_type}')  # snp, indel, etc.
    break

Access INFO Fields

python

from cyvcf2 import VCF

for variant in VCF('input.vcf.gz'):
    dp = variant.INFO.get('DP')
    af = variant.INFO.get('AF')
    print(f'{variant.CHROM}:{variant.POS} DP={dp} AF={af}')

Access Genotypes

python

from cyvcf2 import VCF

vcf = VCF('input.vcf.gz')
samples = vcf.samples  # List of sample names

for variant in vcf:
    gts = variant.gt_types  # 0=HOM_REF, 1=HET, 2=UNKNOWN, 3=HOM_ALT
    for sample, gt in zip(samples, gts):
        gt_str = ['HOM_REF', 'HET', 'UNKNOWN', 'HOM_ALT'][gt]
        print(f'{sample}: {gt_str}')
    break

Access Sample Fields

python

from cyvcf2 import VCF

for variant in VCF('input.vcf.gz'):
    depths = variant.format('DP')  # numpy array
    gqs = variant.format('GQ')     # Genotype quality
    print(f'Depths: {depths}')

Fetch Region

python

from cyvcf2 import VCF

vcf = VCF('input.vcf.gz')
for variant in vcf('chr1:1000000-2000000'):
    print(f'{variant.CHROM}:{variant.POS}')

Get Header Info

python

from cyvcf2 import VCF

vcf = VCF('input.vcf.gz')
print(f'Samples: {vcf.samples}')
print(f'Contigs: {vcf.seqnames}')

# INFO field definitions
for info in vcf.header_iter():
    if info['HeaderType'] == 'INFO':
        print(f'{info["ID"]}: {info["Description"]}')

Write VCF

python

from cyvcf2 import VCF, Writer

vcf = VCF('input.vcf.gz')
writer = Writer('output.vcf', vcf)

for variant in vcf:
    if variant.QUAL > 30:
        writer.write_record(variant)

writer.close()
vcf.close()

Quick Reference

Task	bcftools	cyvcf2
View VCF	`bcftools view file.vcf.gz`	`VCF('file.vcf.gz')`
View header	`bcftools view -h file.vcf.gz`	`vcf.header_iter()`
Get region	`bcftools view file.vcf.gz chr1:1-1000`	`vcf('chr1:1-1000')`
Query fields	`bcftools query -f '%CHROM\t%POS\n'`	Loop with properties
Count variants	`bcftools view -H file.vcf.gz \| wc -l`	`sum(1 for _ in vcf)`
VCF to BCF	`bcftools view -Ob -o out.bcf in.vcf.gz`	Use Writer

Common Errors

Error	Cause	Solution
`no BGZF EOF marker`	Not bgzipped	Use `bgzip` not `gzip`
`index required`	Missing index for region query	Run `bcftools index`
`sample not found`	Wrong sample name	Check with `bcftools query -l`

Related Skills

•variant-calling - Generate VCF from alignments
•filtering-best-practices - Filter variants by quality/criteria
•vcf-manipulation - Merge, concat, intersect VCFs
•alignment-files/pileup-generation - Generate pileup for calling