The meta.cell file cointains categorical information for each cell. This information must be divided into categories such that each cell is part of exactly one attribute in each category. For example: Let's say we have two categories, one created from a clustering algorithm and one that shows which sample each cell originated from. Then each cell must be in exactly one cluster and from one sample. If you have cells that should not belong to any attribute of a category, we recommend creating a "NA", or similar, attribute to fill in the missing data, as empty entries are not allowed in this file. The meta.cell file have the following format:

This file format changed in CellexalVR 1.1.0. Below is the format for versions 0.0.1 - 1.0.5.

The meta.cell file contains aditional information about each cell. The first line defines a number of attributes that a cell may have. Attributes may be things such as the cell type. The meta.cell file have the following format:

Where each v is either a 0 or a 1. A 1 indicates that a cell has the attribute at the top of the corresponding column, a 0 indicates it does not. A cell is always either part of a attribute or not. A cell may be part of many different attributes. Each attribute may be part of a category. This should be indicated by writing the name of the category immediately followed by an at symbol (@) immediately followed by the attribute name. Attributes that have the same category will be put under the same tab in the attribute coloring menu. Attributes that do not belong to a category should not have an at symbol (@) in front of their names, the meta.cell file should just include the name of the attribute.
In the example file above, "attribute_3" would not belong to any category, but "attribute_1" and "attribute_2" would belong to the same category, named "category".