Sodium ethyl xanthate can be identified through optical absorption peaks in the infrared (1179, 1160, 1115, 1085 cm) and ultraviolet (300 nm) ranges. There are at least six chemical detection methods: 
#Iodometric method  relies on oxidation to dixanthogen by iodine, with the product detected with a starch indicator. This method is however is not selective and suffers from interferences with other sulfur-containing chemicals. 
#Xanthate can be reacted with a copper sulfate or copper tartrate resulting in a copper xanthate residue which is detected with iodine. This method has an advantage of being is insensitive to sulfite, thiosulfate and carbonate impurities.
#In the acid-base detection method, a dilute aqueous xanthate solution is reacted with a copious amount of 0.01 M hydrochloric acid yielding carbon disulfide and alcohol, which are evaluated. The excess acid and impurities are removed through filtering and titration.
#In the argentometric method, sodium ethyl xanthate is reacted with silver nitrate in a dilute solution. The resulted silver xanthate is detected with 10% aqueous solution of iron nitrate. The drawbacks of this method are high cost of silver and blackening of silver xanthate by silver nitrate that reduces the detection accuracy.
#In the mercurimetric method, xanthate is dissolved in 40% aqueous solution of dimethylamine, followed by heating and titration with o-hydroxymercuribenzoate. The product is detected with dithiofluorescein.
#Perchloric acid method involves dissolution of xanthate in water-free acetic acid. The product is titrated with perchloric acid and detected with crystal violet.
Sodium ethyl xanthate can also be quantified using gravimetry, by weighing the lead xanthate residue obtained after reacting SEX with 10% solution of lead nitrate. There are also several electrochemical detection methods, which can be combined with some of the above chemical techniques.