seeking advice on setting up a database

[kareina]

I have previously managed to organize information about rock thin sections in a spreadsheet, but one winds up with lots of extra columns needed to keep track of everything, and lots of empty cells since not every mineral appears in every rock, and not all possible information about each mineral is recorded for every sample. Therefore I have been

Comments

[jillwheezul]

Maybe the easiest way to visualize this is to create a paper form for a sample. You'd have the record number, the unique identifier, a section that had check boxes for each type of mineral (mineral table)& percentage (a numeric entry), a section with check boxes for the features (another table),
a section for the quantifiable features (another table), a text area for free form entry of non-quantifiable features, a rock type, you can create multiple boxes for rock type 1, rock type 2 etc, or create a table that lists rock types as single type or composite names rock type 1 & rock type 2 - it depends on how you want to search the database, a section for drill hole number, and a section for drill hole quadrant (I assume one drill hole per sample?).

After you know what your report/form looks like, perhaps there are ways to have the mineral types generate the rock types. The best way I found to design a database is to sit down and think about how you would like to query the database.