\name{useMart}
\alias{useMart}
\title{Connects to the selected BioMart database and dataset}
\description{A first step in using the biomaRt package is to select a BioMart database and dataset to use.  The useMart function enables one to connect to a specified BioMart database and dataset within this database.  To know which BioMart databases are available see the listMarts function.  To know which datasets are available within a BioMart database, first select the BioMart database using useMart and then use the listDatasets function on the selected BioMart, see listDatasets function.}
\usage{useMart(biomart, dataset, host="www.biomart.org", path="/biomart/martservice", port=80, archive=FALSE, local = FALSE, mysql = FALSE, user, password)}

\arguments{
\item{biomart}{BioMart database name you want to connect to. Possible database names can be retrieved with the functio listMarts}
\item{dataset}{Dataset you want to use.  To see the different datasets available within a biomaRt you can e.g. do:  mart = useMart('ensembl'), followed by listDatasets(mart).}
\item{host}{Host to connect to if different then www.biomart.org}
\item{path}{Path that should be pasted after to host to get access to the web service URL}
\item{port}{port to connect to, will be pasted between host and path}
\item{archive}{Boolean to indicate if you want to access archived versions od BioMart databases.  This currently only works with mysql=TRUE and the ensembl BioMart database}
\item{local}{MySQL access to Ensembl is no longer supported.  biomaRt  in web service mode supports all BioMart queries.  Local BioMart databases can be accessed by specifying the local host which runs the local BioMart web service.}
\item{mysql}{MySQL access to Ensembl is no longer supported.  biomaRt  in web service mode supports all BioMart queries.  Local BioMart databases can be accessed by specifying the local host which runs the local BioMart web service.}
\item{user}{MySQL access to Ensembl is no longer supported.  biomaRt  in web service mode supports all BioMart queries.  Local BioMart databases can be accessed by specifying the local host which runs the local BioMart web service.}
\item{password}{MySQL access to Ensembl is no longer supported.  biomaRt  in web service mode supports all BioMart queries.  Local BioMart databases can be accessed by specifying the local host which runs the local BioMart web service.}
}

\author{Steffen Durinck,\url{http://www.stat.berkeley.edu/~steffen}} 

\examples{
if(interactive()){

mart = useMart("ensembl")
mart=useMart(biomart="ensembl", dataset="hsapiens_gene_ensembl")
}
}
\keyword{methods}