>When I designed lab result tables, there was one row per value; measurements not taken didn't even have a record. However, I've seen tables with dozens of numeric fields describing various parameters measured or calculated. There should be at least a byte-mapped character field where each byte would be the status of the corresponding field (a technique not too different from bit-mapped fields, and actually similar to how Fox knows which field is null). But in the case of the current table design, it's either allowing for nulls or doing a lot more coding.

Ok, this seems like specific application requirements. I also have a Bit fields here and there. Default value goes to False meaning that it hasn't been processed or accepted, for example. Other related fields would then serve to know more about it such as the date processed.