Hi all,

Our genotype data is currently stored in plink format, however I've found the required fam file columns of family ID, parental IDs, etc aren't really suitable for our datasets; family information isn't very informative for our analysis or often isn't available. Can the family or parental ID columns in the fam file be used for things such as customer or batch ID? Or if this isn't best practice, can anyone suggest a better file format to use?

Many thanks for any replies!