Flat file databases are simple to create and organise. They look like a spreadsheet. Each column represents a field and each row represents a record of fields. The table is sorted by one of the fields. However while they are easy to use they require more work to maintain due to the high level of data redundancy and are only suitable for files with less than 100 records.
A database is a collection of related records stored in files. The elements of a flat file database are:
· Files: a collection of related records. It looks much the same as a spreadsheet but with named columns.
· A Record: is a collection of information about one specific topic (i.e. it might contain all the information about a student called John Smith. If the file is sorted alphabetically then the next name will come after Smith and might be all the records about Penny Thompson including all the fields which might be class, age, address, home phone number).
· A field: These are the columns in a flat file database and are usually named at the top of that column. For the example of Penny Thompson one field would be her name, another one would be her home phone number).
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