The flat file was a great start in our technology, but it would be really cumbersome to use when you have a lot of information that you want to cross check. It makes sense to use the relational file. So, I guess that it still has a place there, but I cannot imagine many other situations, if any, where it could possibly be useful. They always give the CSV option, and it is usually the only one that is compatible with Excel.
The only place I ever still see a flat file used is in downloading information from my bank account to Excel. A relational database has a big handicap in the access of data because it has to check constraints and relations and search tables, and ultimately, everything is stored in files, anyway. When there are no delimiters in a data file and the fields are fixed width, it is. If you need a database, but all your information can be stored in a single table, the fastest way to store your data is in a flat file. Format Designer - Flat File Schema Definition - non-delimited data. I even have a dirty little secret about databases. Anything that has a large number of entries and a short and constant number of fields is best stored in a flat file. from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. Other examples: readings of temperatures, speed at impact, velocities. noun computing A data file containing usually one record per line.
In fact, in data mining, flat files are the norm. Flat files are very important in ETL (Extract, Transfer, Load).įlat files are used all the time.
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