Files Terminology

CS 102
File – a collection of related data
File Structures &
examples : student records, payroll file
File Organizations Entity – a data item of interest

example : student or employee
Fields or Columns – data related to an entity or
Chapter 01 object
Introduction to File Organizations
examples : last name, first name, gender, birth
date, (degree program or department), (year
level or job title), etc.

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Files Terminology Why External Storage ?

Record or Row – a grouped collection of fields
about an entity or object

examples: fields about a student or employee
Key – one or more fields chosen to identify a
record uniquely. Files are usually ordered
according to key values.

examples: student or employee number, or last
name, first name and birth date.
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collection of data usually too large to fit in main
memory

only a small portion of the file is accessed at a
time need to be in internal memory

file needs to be stored permanently in non-
volatile storage for access by several programs
Preference : Contiguous storage of data
provides quicker access to information.
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Our Objective Factors of File Design

Objective :
File Organization – how records are stored

Investigate structures used to organize large
collections of data into files stored on secondary
storage devices.
File Design goals :
Efficiency of storage and access.
Many factors affect file design.

File Type – role of the file in an information
system

File Characteristics – activity and volatility of
the file

File Manipulations – operations to access the
file and keep it current

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 File Organizations

the way in which records are stored in an
external file.

the data structures used for organizing the data
Sequential File Organization

Records are stored and accessed consecutively
in sequence from beginning to end

Records are usually in ascending or descending
order by the key field

Common File Organizations
On average, half the records must be accessed

to locate a record of interest
1. Sequential

The entire file must usually be copied in order to
2. Random update it
3. Indexed Sequential
Records may be fixed length or of varying length
4. Multikey

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Random File Organization Relative Files

Allows access of a record without sequential
search through the file

There is a relationship between each record’s
key and its location in an external file

Directly computes the location of the record
using key value

There may be no relationship between the logical
ordering and the physical ordering of the file.

an implementation of random file organization
with fixed record lengths.

Each record in secondary storage is assigned a
record number which designates its relative
position with respect to the beginning of the file.

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Relative Files Indexed Sequential File Organization

The first record may be record number 0 or 1
a hybrid of sequential and random file
depending on implementation. organizations

record address =
Records may be variable length.

address of beginning of file +
Records are grouped into blocks.

relative record number x fixed record length
Blocks are fixed length.

can be updated in place
Records in a block are not necessarily ordered

can be sequentially accessed according to
physical order of records in storage but this
access is usually meaningless.
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but usually are.

Each block is stored in a contiguous location.

The blocks are organized into a relative file
ordered by the key fields of representative
records per block.
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 Indexes

there is a hierarchical structure of record keys
and relative block numbers called an index

To retrieve a record,
index is used to retrieve the relative record
number of the block containing the record,
then the relative file of blocks is accessed
randomly
then the block is searched sequentially for the
record
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Multikey File Organization

allows multiple ways to access the file by several
different key fields

uses indexing structure with indexes for each key
field
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File Types
2. Transaction File – records of operations
applied to master file

Example : new account opening file,
Deposits/Withdrawals file
3. Table File – records used for lookup

Example : Interest rates file, minimum balance
requirement file, account type description file
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Indexes

index can specify order in which file should be
accessed sequentially by record keys.

access speed is almost as fast as random file
organization but slower due to the index search
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File Types
Six File Types according to functionality :
1. Master File - records of permanent data but
are updated occasionally

major collection of data pertaining to a specific
application

usually stored on disks, and nowadays rarely on
tape

Example : Bank accounts file, accounts balances
file
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File Types
4. Report File – information prepared for the
user. May be printed or displayed on-screen.

Example : Summary of accounts, Error and Audit
listings of a maintenance run
5. Control File – summary of maintenance run

Example contents : run date, maintenance
statistics
6. History File – backup of master, transaction
and control files from past runs.
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 File Characteristics
Usage characteristics of a file :

file size – consider initial and future file sizes to
determine storage that can accommodate file.

activity – percentage of master records updated
during a maintenance run
high activitity is more efficiently stored using
sequential file organization
low activity is more efficiently stored using
organizations with random access that allows
update in place
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File Manipulations : Queries
1. Queries

searching records whose values meet a criteria

the types of queries to be performed can affect file
design

Examples :
List the record of student Juan De La Cruz
List all students enrolled in more than 20 units
List all second-year level Engineering students
Count all Engineering students per major with
an average of 1.5 or better
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File Manipulations : Maintenance
3. Maintenance

updating master file with transaction file to keep
the master file up-to-date

possible transaction or update codes could be
A = addition of a new master file record
C = changing values of fields of master file
records
D = deletion of an existing record from master
file
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File Characteristics

volatility – number of records added and
deleted compared to original number of records.
high volatility – best updated using merge
procedures. Non-sequential files have high
overhead to reorganize as a result of these
updates.

frequency of use – sequential files require more
time to update on hourly basis instead of daily or
monthly basis, so can’t be used frequently

required response time – real time access
require random access
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File Manipulations : Merging
2. Merging

combining data extracted from two or more files

Examples :
File of Engineering students is usually
separate from file of grades
Counting all Engineering students per major
with an average of 1.5 or better requires
merging these files.
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File Manipulations : Maintenance

file maintenance program merges transaction and
master files
if transaction refer to a non-existent master file
record, it must be an addition transaction
if transaction refer to an existent master file
record, it must be an update or deletion
if no transactions refer to a master file record,
no update on that record is made

For sequential files, transactions must be ordered
in the same key sequence as the master file so
they may be merged. A new master file is created
by the maintenance program.
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 File Manipulations : Multifile File Manipulations : Multifile
4. Multifile Information Systems 4. Multifile Information Systems : DBMS

uses many master files Database management systems (DBMS) is a

designed to reduce duplication of information multifile information system

Examples : DBMS is out of scope of this course and is the

subject of a different course.
The last name and first name need not be
stored with each grade of a student.
Only the key field “student number” is in both
student file and grades file to link
corresponding records.

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End

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