diff --git a/uk/ac/sanger/artemis/components/variant/VCFRecord.java b/uk/ac/sanger/artemis/components/variant/VCFRecord.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..71cea44d0e5f373bd45fca8153443d7f3dc6d7e2
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+++ b/uk/ac/sanger/artemis/components/variant/VCFRecord.java
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+/*
+ * created: 2010
+ *
+ * This file is part of Artemis
+ *
+ * Copyright(C) 2010  Genome Research Limited
+ *
+ * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+ * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
+ * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
+ * of the License, or(at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+ * Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
+ *
+ */
+
+package uk.ac.sanger.artemis.components.variant;
+
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Iterator;
+
+class VCFRecord
+{
+  public String alt;
+  public String ref;
+  int seqID;
+  int pos;
+  float quality;
+  String info;
+  String format;
+  HashMap<String, String> data = new HashMap<String, String>();
+  
+  public String toString()
+  {
+    StringBuffer buff = new StringBuffer();
+    Iterator<String> it = data.values().iterator();
+    while(it.hasNext())
+      buff.append(it.next()+ ( (it.hasNext()) ? ":" : "" ) );
+    return seqID+"\t"+pos+"\t"+ref+"\t"+alt+"\t"+quality+"\t"+info+"\t"+format+"\t"+buff.toString();
+  }
+}
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