File Management and Data Base Applications

Abstract

File management and data base systems help people create, store and access information efficiently using computers. Section 3.1 distinguishes between clerical and computer files. Section 3.2 discusses the basic features of file management systems. These allow the user to: design the record structure; check the data as it is input to the file; store the data on disk; access the data as required; and print it off. This is followed by a discussion of the types of file management system and how the more powerful data base management systems might be distinguished from them. This distinction has become somewhat blurred in the context of microcomputer packages. Section 3.4 discusses the benefits coming from the use of data base systems. The next section describes distributed data bases, where the data can be held in a number of locations and accessed by users remote from the location where the data is stored.