Terms
"Flat file database" may be defined very narrowly, or more broadly. The narrower interpretation is correct in database theory; the broader covers the term as generally used.
Strictly, a flat file database should consist of nothing but data and, if records vary in length, delimiters. More broadly, the term refers to any database which exists in a single file in the form of rows and columns, with no relationships or links between records and fields except the table structure.
Terms used to describe different aspects of a database and its tools differ from one implementation to the next, but the concepts remain the same. FileMaker uses the term "Find", while MySQL uses the term "Query"; but the concept is the same. FileMaker "files", in version 7 and above, are equivalent to MySQL "databases", and so forth. To avoid confusing the reader, one consistent set of terms is used throughout this article.
However, the basic terms "record" and "field" are used in nearly every flat file database implementation.
Read more about this topic: Flat File Database
Famous quotes containing the word terms:
“It is surely a matter of common observation that a man who knows no one thing intimately has no views worth hearing on things in general. The farmer philosophizes in terms of crops, soils, markets, and implements, the mechanic generalizes his experiences of wood and iron, the seaman reaches similar conclusions by his own special road; and if the scholar keeps pace with these it must be by an equally virile productivity.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
“Multitude, solitude: equal and interchangeable terms for the active and prolific poet.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“Ethical and cultural desegregation. It is a contradiction in terms to scream race pride and equality while at the same time spurning Negro teachers and self-association.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)