$kary_adaptor = $db_adaptor->get_KaryotypeBandAdaptor();

  foreach $band ( @{ $kary_adaptor->fetch_all_by_Slice($slice) } ) {
    # do something with band
  }

  $band = $kary_adaptor->fetch_by_dbID($id);

  my @bands = @{ $kary_adaptor->fetch_all_by_chr_name('X') };

  my $band = $kary_adaptor->fetch_by_chr_band( '4', 'q23' );

  my $self = shift;

  #warning _objs_from_sth implementation depends on ordering
  return qw (
       k.karyotype_id
       k.seq_region_id
       k.seq_region_start
       k.seq_region_end
       k.band
       k.stain );

  my ($self, $sth) = @_;
  my $db = $self->db();
  my $slice_adaptor = $db->get_SliceAdaptor();

  my @features;
  my %slice_cache;

  my($karyotype_id,$seq_region_id,$seq_region_start,$seq_region_end,
     $band,$stain);

  $sth->bind_columns(\$karyotype_id,\$ seq_region_id,\$ seq_region_start,\$
                     seq_region_end,\$ band,\$ stain);

  while ( $sth->fetch() ) {
    #need to get the internal_seq_region, if present
    $seq_region_id = $self->get_seq_region_id_internal($seq_region_id);

    my $slice = $slice_cache{$seq_region_id} ||=
      $slice_adaptor->fetch_by_seq_region_id($seq_region_id);

    push( @features,
          $self->_create_feature( 'Bio::EnsEMBL::KaryotypeBand', {
                                    -START   => $seq_region_start,
                                    -END     => $seq_region_end,
                                    -SLICE   => $slice,
                                    -ADAPTOR => $self,
                                    -DBID    => $karyotype_id,
                                    -NAME    => $band,
                                    -STAIN   => $stain
                                  } ) );

  }

  return\@ features;

  my $self = shift;

  return (['karyotype','k'])
}


#_columns

#  Arg [1]    : none
#  Example    : none
#  Description: PROTECTED Implementation of abstract superclass method to 
#               provide the name of the columns to query 
#  Returntype : list of strings
#  Exceptions : none
#  Caller     : internal

  my ($self, $chr_name, $band) = @_;

  throw('Chromosome name argument expected') if(!$chr_name);
  throw('Band argument expected') if(!$band);

  my $slice = $self->db->get_SliceAdaptor->fetch_by_region(undef,
                                                           $chr_name);

  my $constraint = "k.band like '$band%'";
  return $self->fetch_all_by_Slice_constraint($slice,$constraint);

    my ($self,$chr_name) = @_;
    
    throw('Chromosome name argument expected') if(!$chr_name);

    my $slice =
      $self->db->get_SliceAdaptor->fetch_by_region(undef, $chr_name);
    unless ($slice){
        warning("Cannot retrieve chromosome $chr_name");
        return;
    }
    return $self->fetch_all_by_Slice($slice);

  my $self = shift;
  deprecate('Use fetch_all_by_chr_band instead.');

  my ($band) = @{$self->fetch_all_by_chr_band(@_)};
  return $band;

  my ($self, $ordered) = shift;

  return $self->_list_dbIDs("karyotype",undef, $ordered);
}


1;

  Copyright (c) 1999-2009 The European Bioinformatics Institute and
  Genome Research Limited.  All rights reserved.

  This software is distributed under a modified Apache license.
  For license details, please see

    /info/about/code_licence.html

  Please email comments or questions to the public Ensembl
  developers list at <ensembl-dev@ebi.ac.uk>.

  Questions may also be sent to the Ensembl help desk at
  <helpdesk@ensembl.org>.