Single-word Selectors

Single-word Selectors

The very simplest selection-expressions are single-word selectors. These selectors do not take identifiers; they are complete by themselves.

Single Word Selector	Short Form Selector	Description
all	*	All atoms currently loaded into PyMOL
none	none	No atoms (empty selection)
hydro	h.	All hydrogen atoms currently loaded into PyMOL
hetatm	het	All atoms loaded from Protein Data Bank HETATM records
visible	v.	All atoms in enabled objects with at least one visible representation
polymer		All atoms on the polymer (not het).
present	pr.	All atoms with defined coordinates in the current state (used in creating movies)

The selector none won't come up much when you are typing commands directly into PyMOL, but it is useful in programming scripts.

As the table shows, many single-word selectors have short forms to save on typing. Some short forms must be followed by a period and a space, in order to delimit the word. Short forms and long forms have the same effect, so choose the form that suits you.

   PyMOL> color blue, all          # It all turns blue.
   PyMOL> color blue, *
   
   PyMOL> hide hydro               # Representations of all 
   PyMOL> hide h.                  # hydrogen atoms are hidden.
   
   PyMOL> show spheres, hetatom    # All the atoms defined as HETATOMS 
   PyMOL> show spheres, het        # in the PDB input file
                                   # are represented as spheres.