The daily intakes for eight age-sex groups (infants, young children, and male and female teenagers, adults, and older adults) of nine nutritional elements (sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, and manganese) were obtained by laboratory analysis of the Food and Drug Administration's 234 Total Diet Study (TDS) foods and by use of the USDA Nutrient Data Base for Standard Reference. Food substitutions were required for eight TDS foods that had no direct counterparts in the USDA database. When corrections were made for missing values for magnesium, zinc, copper, and manganese in the USDA database, average percent differences between the two methods (USDA-TDS) for the age-sex groups were -2.6 for iron, 0.6 for manganese, 0.9 for zinc, 5 for potassium and phosphorus, 7 for magnesium, 8 for sodium and calcium, and 11.0 for copper. Data in the USDA database (when corrected for missing values) provided estimates of daily intakes of nine nutritional elements that were similar to those obtained by use of data from laboratory analysis in the TDS.