Sample naming by delimiter not working as I would expect

[NicoleRayner]

The attached .squid file contains data for 5 samples (+ RM). One of them is sample 1242, another is 12429. Both of these sample names are followed by a - delimiter. Squid3 does not recognize this right away. Instead it seems to group both samples that start with 1242 into one. I then have to go in and break up further (which is easy to miss) and ends up just using # of characters (aka 1242- vs 12429) to define. Its a bit deceptive/confusing since it is not working with the delimiter as I would expect and thus not being consistent with the naming (some with hyphens, some without).

I'm not sure what the fix is (or if worthwhile), since the first pass at sorting samples is by consistency of characters...

980_1_2021_Jul_13_15.33.zip

[auscopegeochemistry]

Hi All (@bowring),

Standard and Custom reports in the new version (Squid3.1.8) both write a new (additional) first column, populating the Sample (name) field. This seems to be the new standard and its fill depends on how the user sets the sample delimiter under Managing Sample Names (often resulting in just a few characters in that field).

Will this be the new standard way of exporting results? Or is this output customisable as well (as in excluding the 'Sample' name column from any Reports)? At present I don't think it helps much to report the first characters of sample names in that field, since the next field is populated by the whole Spot-Analysis name.

Cheers,
Alex

[bowring]

@NicoleRayner - This is difficult to solve deterministically given the underlying assumptions about sample naming. Note that in the supplied example, setting the delimiter to count = 5 produces the equivalent result to what you have. Maybe someday or someone interested in solving an interesting problem?

@auscopegeochemistry - The intended use case is that the user select a delimiter that separates out the full sample name, not just the first characters. There have been other discussions about supplying the sample name for database intake. You can always delete the column. Others welcome to chime in here.

[auscopegeochemistry]

@bowring I like that suggestion no problems! It will also force the user to use a proper sample name and think about the delimiter that separates sample, grains and spots. Doesn't the community usually use something like 'AbbreviatedSampleName-Grain.Spot' it be good to have a convention! Is there?

Thanks for your reply! Cheers Alex