# rarefaction - frequency option

**URL:** <https://forum.mothur.org/t/rarefaction-frequency-option/224>\
**Category:** Feature requests\
**Created:** [May 7, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://forum.mothur.org/t/rarefaction-frequency-option/224 "2010-05-07T01:39:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rubensduarte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@rubensduarte](https://forum.mothur.org/u/rubensduarte)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://forum.mothur.org/t/rarefaction-frequency-option/224/1 "2010-05-07T01:39:02Z")

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Hi  
I was wondering if mothur could use fractions in the rarefaction’s frequency option.

Example: Sample A has 120,000 OTUs. Sample B has 87,000 OTUs.  
rarefaction.single(freq=1/100) would result using a frequency of 1% the total OTUs on each rarefaction curve (the same as freq=1200 for sample A, and freq=870 for sample B). Frequency input could be freq=1/100 or freq=1% or any fraction desired.

This could be useful if you have very different number of sequences or OTUs in each sample, but still wants to plot the same amount of data in a graphic.

Just an idea. (and this could make my analysis easier hehe)

Thanks,

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**Author:** ![westcott](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forum.mothur.org/westcott/32/18_2.png) [@westcott](https://forum.mothur.org/u/westcott)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 11:45am UTC](https://forum.mothur.org/t/rarefaction-frequency-option/224/2 "2010-07-20T11:45:42Z")

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Thanks for the suggestion! This is in version 1.12.0!
