<p>The merge utility from <a href="https://github.com/fritzsedlazeck/SURVIVOR" rel="nofollow noreferrer">SURVIVOR</a> seems to be what you are looking for. I did not try it yet, but it seems to be especially designed to handle SV.</p>

<p>The simplest thing to do would probably to first merge your patients files together for each tool and have one multi-patient file per variant caller. Then I would merge the multi-sample files of the different tools.</p>

<p>Here is a detailed <a href="http://simpsonlab.github.io/2015/06/15/merging-sv-calls/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">blog post</a> describing the different challenges associated with merging structural variants from different callers and explaining the steps they took to address it. All the code to reproduce the pipeline is available on a <a href="https://github.com/ljdursi/mergevcf/tree/master/mergevcf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">github repo</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-05-01T08:50:11.777Z
Thanks for your reply and sorry for late response. Survivor is for merging SVs from different variant caller but can we merge small and large variants vcf file using this?
Lot_to_learn
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-05-01T10:08:21.630Z
I am not sure, but It would seem it handles both small and large variants by looking at the [source code](https://github.com/fritzsedlazeck/SURVIVOR/blob/master/src/vcfs/Merge_VCF.cpp). They also have a [wiki](https://github.com/fritzsedlazeck/SURVIVOR/wiki/Methods-and-Parameter) detailing the methods. I think you might want to try on a test file and see if it does what you expect.
cmdoret
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-02T07:47:56.620Z
Thanks. I'll try and let you know if it works well with both variants or not.
Lot_to_learn
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-08T10:38:03.573Z
Hey!! I know it is very late to respond but I was quite busy in other stuffs. I tried this tool and found that this tool extract SVs from both VCF file and merge them in a single file. But I need merging tool which combine all variants from both VCF file including SVs and merge than into single VCF file not just SVs. Unfortunately, that does not work. Any other idea... Thanks
Lot_to_learn
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-27T15:18:51.643Z
2018-04-28T09:42:52.040Z
2018-04-28T09:42:52.040Z
cmdoret
<p>I am working with WES data for detection of somatic variants and I have used two variant callers because no variant caller is complete in itself. I have used GATK Haplotypecaller for small variants like snp,ins,del etc. And for large variants I have used pindel (specially for SVs detection). Now I have two vcf file for each patients, one from gatk and another from pindel. Although I know various vcf-merging tools but is it right to merge two different vcf file from different callers. Do they give right and proper merged vcf file. Are those vcf-merging tools SV-aware and consider only trivial call for the same variant represented differently in different callers. I know these are too many questions for a single thread but all these are related to each other. I am in dilemma whether I should merge them or use them separately.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<vcf><variant-calling><gatk><variation>
Merge 2 VCFs from different variant callers
# Merge 2 VCFs from different variant callers

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-04-27)

I am working with WES data for detection of somatic variants and I have used two variant callers because no variant caller is complete in itself. I have used GATK Haplotypecaller for small variants like snp,ins,del etc. And for large variants I have used pindel (specially for SVs detection). Now I have two vcf file for each patients, one from gatk and another from pindel. Although I know various vcf-merging tools but is it right to merge two different vcf file from different callers. Do they give right and proper merged vcf file. Are those vcf-merging tools SV-aware and consider only trivial call for the same variant represented differently in different callers. I know these are too many questions for a single thread but all these are related to each other. I am in dilemma whether I should merge them or use them separately.

Thanks.

**Tags:** vcf, variant-calling, gatk, variation

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-04-27. Score: 5

The merge utility from [SURVIVOR](https://github.com/fritzsedlazeck/SURVIVOR) seems to be what you are looking for. I did not try it yet, but it seems to be especially designed to handle SV.

The simplest thing to do would probably to first merge your patients files together for each tool and have one multi-patient file per variant caller. Then I would merge the multi-sample files of the different tools.

Here is a detailed [blog post](http://simpsonlab.github.io/2015/06/15/merging-sv-calls/) describing the different challenges associated with merging structural variants from different callers and explaining the steps they took to address it. All the code to reproduce the pipeline is available on a [github repo](https://github.com/ljdursi/mergevcf/tree/master/mergevcf).

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks for your reply and sorry for late response. Survivor is for merging SVs from different variant caller but can we merge small and large variants vcf file using this?  
> **username_1**: I am not sure, but It would seem it handles both small and large variants by looking at the [source code](https://github.com/fritzsedlazeck/SURVIVOR/blob/master/src/vcfs/Merge_VCF.cpp). They also have a [wiki](https://github.com/fritzsedlazeck/SURVIVOR/wiki/Methods-and-Parameter) detailing the methods. I think you might want to try on a test file and see if it does what you expect.  
> **username_0**: Thanks. I'll try and let you know if it works well with both variants or not.  
> **username_0**: Hey!! I know it is very late to respond but I was quite busy in other stuffs. I tried this tool and found that this tool extract SVs from both VCF file and merge them in a single file. But I need merging tool which combine all variants from both VCF file including SVs and merge than into single VCF file not just SVs. Unfortunately, that does not work. Any other idea... Thanks  

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