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Discus into details system files organization indicating all

the types of file organization with schematic diagrams.
Is used to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, information
placed in a storage area would be one large body of data with no way to tell where one
piece of information stops and the next begins. By separating the data into individual
pieces, and giving each piece a name, the information is easily separated and identified.
Taking its name from the way paper-based information systems are named, each group of
data is called a "file". The structure and logic rules used to manage the groups of
information and their names is called a "file system". It should not be confused with the
physical storage of the file in some types of storage media. There are certain basic types of
computer file, which can include files stored as blocks of data and streams of data, where
the information streams out of the file while it is being read until the end of the file is
encountered.
It is a high-level design decision to specify a system of file organization for a computer
software program or a computer system designed for a particular purpose. Performance is
high on the list of priorities for this design process, depending on how the file is being
used. The design of the file organization usually depends mainly on the system
environment. For instance, factors such as whether the file is going to be used for
transaction-oriented processes like OLTP or Data Warehousing, or whether the file is
shared among various processes like those found in a typical distributed system or
standalone. It must also be asked whether the file is on a network and used by a number of
Users and whether it may be accessed internally or remotely and how often it is accessed.
The file also operates in two ways which are:
Update operation
Retrieve Operation
o Update operations change the data values by insertion, deletion, or update. Retrieval
operations, on the other hand, do not alter the data but retrieve them after optional
conditional filtering. In both types of operations, selection plays a significant role.
Other than creation and deletion of a file, there could be several operations, which can
be done on files.

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Open A file can be opened in one of the two modes, read mode or write mode. In
read mode, the operating system does not allow anyone to alter data. In other words,
data is read only. Files opened in read mode can be shared among several entities. Write
mode allows data modification. Files opened in write mode can be read but cannot be
shared.
Locate every file has a file pointer, which tells the current position where the data is
to be read or written. This pointer can be adjusted accordingly. Using find (seek)
operation, it can be moved forward or backward.
Read by default, when files are opened in read mode, the file pointer points to the
beginning of the file. There are options where the user can tell the operating system
where to locate the file pointer at the time of opening a file. The very next data to the
file pointer is read.
Write User can select to open a file in write mode, which enables them to edit its
contents. It can be deletion, insertion, or modification. The file pointer can be located at
the time of opening or can be dynamically changed if the operating system allows to do
so.
Close this is the most important operation from the operating systems point of view.
When a request to close a file is generated, the operating system
o removes all the locks (if in shared mode),
o saves the data (if altered) to the secondary storage media, and
o Releases all the buffers and file handlers associated with the file.

Types of file organization

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In a database we have lots of data. Each data is grouped into related groups called tables.
Each table will have lots of related records. Any user will see these records in the form of
tables in the screen. But these records are stored as files in the memory. Usually one file
will contain all the records of a table.
In order to access the contents of the files records in the physical memory, it is not that
easy. They are not stored as tables there and our SQL queries will not work. We need
some accessing methods. To access these files, we need to store them in certain order so
that it will be easy to fetch the records. It is same as indexes in the books, or catalogues in
the library, which helps us to find required topics or books respectively.
Storing the files in certain order is called file organization. The main objective of file
organization is

Optimal selection of records i.e.; records should be accessed as fast as possible.

Any insert, update or delete transaction on records should be easy, quick and should not
harm other records.

No duplicate records should be induced as a result of insert, update or delete

Records should be stored efficiently so that cost of storage is minimal.

There are various methods of file organizations. These methods may be efficient for certain
types of access/selection meanwhile it will turn inefficient for other selections. Hence it is
up to the programmer to decide the best suited file organization method depending on his
requirement.
The types of file organizations are:
a) Serial file
b) Sequential file
c) Direct or random access file
d) Indexed-sequential file

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Serial file : Serial file organization is the simplest file organization method. In serial files, records
are entered in the order of their creation. As such, the file is unordered, and is at best
in chronological order. Serial files are primarily used as transaction files in which the
transactions are recorded in the order that they occur.

Sequential file : The sequential file organization In this file organization, the records of the file are
stored one after another both physically and logically. That is, record with sequence
number 16 is located just after the 15th record. A record of a sequential file can only be
accessed by reading all the previous records.
A sequential file is designed for efficient processing of records in sorted order on
some search key.

Records are chained together by pointers to permit fast retrieval in search key
order.

Pointer points to next record in order.

Records are stored physically in search key order (or as close to this as possible).

This minimizes number of block accesses.

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It is difficult to maintain physical sequential order as records are inserted and deleted.

Deletion can be managed with the pointer chains.

Insertion poses problems if no space where new record should go.

If space, use it, else put new record in an overflow block.

Adjust pointers accordingly.

Figure 10.16 shows the previous example after an insertion.

Problem: we now have some records out of physical sequential order.

If very few records in overflow blocks, this will work well.

If order is lost, reorganize the file.

Reorganizations are expensive and done when system load is low.

The schematic diagram is provided below

If insertions rarely occur, we could keep the file in physically sorted order and
reorganize when insertion occurs. In this case, the pointer fields are no longer
required.
Direct or random access file : In computer science, random access (more precisely and more generally called direct
access) is the ability to access an item of data at any given coordinates in a population
of addressable elements. As a rule the assumption is that each element can be accessed
roughly as easily and efficiently as any other, no matter how many elements may be in
the set, nor how many coordinates may be available for addressing the data. For

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example, data might be stored notionally in a single sequence like a row, in two
dimensions like rows and columns on a surface, or in multiple dimensions. However,
given all the coordinates, a program can access each record about as quickly and easily
as any other, and in particular, access it in time to be of value to the user. In this sense
the choice of data item is arbitrary in the sense that no matter which item is sought, all
that is needed to find it, is its address, that is to say, the coordinates at which it is
located, such as its row and column (or its track and record number on a magnetic
drum). At first the term "random access" was used because the process had to be
capable of finding records no matter in which sequence they were required.

Each record has its own address on the file with by the help of which it can be

directly accessed for reading or written.

The records need not be in any sequence witching the file and they need not be

in adjacent location on the storage medium.

Indexed-sequential file : ISAM (Indexed Sequential Access Method) is a file management system developed at
IBM that allows records to be accessed either sequentially (in the order they were
entered) or randomly (with an index). Each index defines a different ordering of the
records. An employee database may have several indexes, based on the information
being sought. For example, a name index may order employees alphabetically by last
name, while a department index may order employees by their department. A key is
specified in each index. For an alphabetical index of employee names, the last name
field would be the key.

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