Empirical formula of a hydrate

Question

If you did not know the formula for the anhydrous compound but did know the identity of the elements that made up the anhydrous compound, would it be possible to calculate the empirical formula for the hydrate from your experimental data?

Experimental data provides:

mass of anhydrous salt

mass of water

mass of hydrate

Answer 1

Yes. From the mass of water, calculate moles of water.

From mass of anhydrous salt, calculate moles of salt. Since you know the elements making up the salt, you can find moles of cation and moles of anion. Manipulate these to get whole numbers and thus the empirical formula of the anhydrous salt.

Find the mole ratio of water to salt. This gives you the moles of water per mole of salt.

If you had a specific example, it would be easier to demonstrate this process.