SMILES and SMARTS Notation

SMILES is an acronym for Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry Specification. The algorithm is a universal nomenclature. It was developed in 1988 by Weininger [15]. Several computer programs use now the SMILES algorithm. We briefly show a few most important rules to represent chemical structures by SMILES. We definitely refer to a more detailed version that is given in the Internet [16]. 

Atoms are represented by their usual symbols. Hydrogens are not written. So C stands for methane and CC stands for ethane. Special symbols can be represented in square brackets. 

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