This article is part of the Coffalyser.Net Tips & Tricks collection.

For proper analysis of an MLPA experiment with Coffalyser.Net, it is important to correctly define the sample type for each sample in the fragment analysis tab. If you have many samples, this can be time-consuming. Two methods can speed up this step: selection of sample types using only the keyboard, and automatic detection of sample types by Coffalyser.Net.

Selecting samples using the keyboard

After clicking the sample type column of a sample, the sample type can quickly be selected by pressing the first letter of the sample type. After pressing this letter, you can select other samples with the up or down arrow keys to repeat the process.

Sample type	Letter to press
Sample	S
Reference sample	R
Positive reference	P
No DNA	N
Digested sample	D

Automatic detection of sample types

Coffalyser.Net is able to automatically define sample types based on keywords in the sample name. To use this functionality, right-click and select Auto Recognize Sample Types or press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + R.

The table below lists which keywords are recognized as which sample types. All samples without one of these keywords are recognized as sample.

Sample type	Term(s)
Reference sample	REF; ref; reference
Positive reference	POS; pos; positive
No DNA	NoDNA
Digested sample	DIG; dig; digested

You can see this automatic sample type detection in action in the short video below.