FLAT FILE STORAGE SOFTWARE
FLAT FILE STORAGE PC

Examples of flat-file database software include early versions of FileMaker and the shareware PC-File and the popular dBase.įlat-file databases are common and ubiquitous because they are easy to write and edit, and suit myriad purposes in an uncomplicated way. These programs were designed to make it easy for individuals to design and use their own databases, and were almost on par with word processors and spreadsheets in popularity.

FLAT FILE STORAGE PC

In the 1980s, configurable flat-file database computer applications were popular on the IBM PC and the Macintosh. the individual cards) to one another, save by their group membership. Herman Hollerith's work for the US Census Bureau first exercised in the 1890 United States Census, involving data tabulated via hole punches in paper cards, may be considered the first computerized flat-file database, as it (presumably) included no cards indexing other cards, or otherwise relating the individual records (i.e. A spreadsheet or text editor program may be used to implement a flat-file database, which may then be printed or used online for improved search capabilities. This can also be done with any typewriter or word processor. Another example of a flat file is a name-and-address list with the fields Name, Address, and Phone Number.Ī list of names, addresses, and phone numbers written by hand on a sheet of paper is a flat-file database. Use of character delimiters which include a length component ( Declarative notation) is comparatively rare but vastly reduces the overhead associated with locating the extent of each field.Įxamples of flat files include /etc/passwd and /etc/group on Unix-like operating systems.

However, use of character delimiters (especially commas) is also a crude form of data compression which may assist overall performance by reducing data volumes - especially for data transmission purposes. Using delimiters incurs some overhead in locating them every time they are processed (unlike fixed-width formatting), which may have performance implications. Extra formatting may be needed to avoid delimiter collision. In other cases, each field may have a fixed length short values may be padded with space characters. In comma-separated values and delimiter-separated values files, fields can be separated by delimiters such as comma or tab characters. There are different conventions for depicting data. Plain text files usually contain one record per line.

Flat file storage