Lookup table based modelling v/s Differential equations?

Which of the two mentioned methods would be best to model and simulation a system?

Lets consider a spring and damper system. We can derive differential equations where one would need the values for spring constant and damping factor.

What if there is data for spring and dampers in the form of force vs displacement for Spring and force vs velocity for dampers. This data could be used in lookup table block in simulink to model the system.

Which method between the two: Lookup table based & Differential equations would be the best ? And why?

[darova]

Best for what? Physical meaning? Fast code?

[Nimish Iwale]

Best for the following in order of importance, 1. Precision 2. Accuracy 3. Complexness 3. Simulation speed

[darova]

Constant factor simpler to code and it's faster

Something like interp1 (interpolation) is needed for table values. It will be slower

If you can use constants for spring and damper - use them