Data & File Structure

A data structure in computer science is a way of storing data in a computer so that it can be
used efficiently. In other words it a scheme for organizing related pieces of information. Data
structures are implemented by a programming language as data types and the references and
operations they provide. Different kinds of data structures are suited to different kinds of
applications.

The basic types of data structures include:

Files : File A collection of data or information that has a name, called the filename. Almost all
information stored in a computer must be in a file. There are many different types of files: data
files, text files, program files, directory files, and so on. Different types of files store different
types of information. For example, program files store programs, whereas text files store text

Lists

Arrays : In programming, a series of objects all of which are the same size and type. Each
object in an array is called an array element. For example, you could have an array of integers or
an array of characters or an array of anything that has a defined data type. The important
characteristics of an array are:

1) Each element has the same data type (although they may have different values).
2) The entire array is stored contiguously in memory (that is, there are no gaps between
elements).
3) The length of an array is established when the array is created. After creation, its length is
fixed.

An array of ten elements

4) Each item in an array element is accessed by its numerical index. As shown in the above
illustration, numbering begins with 0. The 9th element, for example, would therefore be accessed
at index 8.
5) Arrays can have more than one dimension. A one-dimensional array is called a vector ; a two-
dimensional array is called a matrix.

One-dimensional array

A one-dimensional array has the following important components:

A name
A type: this is the type of all array elements.
An extent: this is the range of the indices or subscripts of array elements.
Multidimensional array

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Arrays can have more than one dimension; these arrays-of-arrays are called multidimensional
arrays. They are very similar to standard arrays with the exception that they have multiple sets of
square brackets after the array identifier. A two dimensional array can be though of as a grid of
rows and columns.

Records : Some programming languages allow you to define a special data structure called
a record. Generally, a record is a combination of other data objects. For example, a record might
contain three integers, a floating-point number, and a character string.

Trees

Tree is a type of data structure in which each element is attached to one or more elements
directly beneath it. The connections between elements are called branches. Trees are often called
inverted trees because they are normally drawn with the root at the top.

The elements at the very bottom of an inverted tree (that is, those that have no elements below
them) are called leaves. All tree structures are hierarchical. This means that each node can only
have one parent node. Trees can be used to store data which has a definite hierarchy; for
example a family tree or a computer file system. In this case, the leaves are files and the other
elements above the leaves are directories.

A binary tree is a special type of inverted tree in which each element has only two branches
below it.

Nodes
A node may contain a value or a condition or represents a separate data structure or a tree of its
own. Each node in a tree has zero or more child nodes, which are below it in the tree (by
convention, trees grow down, not up as they do in nature). A node that has a child is called the
child's parent node (or ancestor node, or superior). A node has at most one parent. The height of a
node is the length of the longest downward path to a leaf from that node. The height of the root is
the height of the tree. The depth of a node is the length of the path to its root (i.e., its root path).

Root nodes
The topmost node in a tree is called the root node. Being the topmost node, the root node
will not have parents. It is the node at which operations on the tree commonly begin
(although some algorithms begin with the leaf nodes and work up ending at the root). All
other nodes can be reached from it by following edges or links. (In the formal definition,
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 each such path is also unique). In diagrams, it is typically drawn at the top. In some trees,
such as heaps, the root node has special properties. Every node in a tree can be seen as
the root node of the subtree rooted at that node.

Leaf nodes
Nodes at the bottommost level of the tree are called leaf nodes. Since they are at the
bottommost level, they do not have any children.
Internal nodes
An internal node or inner node is any node of a tree that has child nodes and is thus not a
leaf node.

Subtrees
A subtree is a portion of a tree data structure that can be viewed as a complete tree in
itself. Any node in a tree T, together with all the nodes below it, comprise a subtree of T.
The subtree corresponding to the root node is the entire tree; the subtree corresponding to
any other node is called a proper subtree (in analogy to the term proper subset).

Tables
Refers to data arranged in rows and columns. A spreadsheet, for example, is a table. In relational
database management systems, all information is stored in the form of tables.

Each of these basic structures has many variations and allows different operations to be
performed on the data.

stack

A stack is an (data structure) ordered list in which all insertions and deletions are made at one
end, called the top. Basic operations are push and pop. The act of storing things on the stack is
commonly known as "pushing" and the act of removing things from the stack is know as
"popping". Often the top is Empty and is available, too.

The restrictions on a stack imply that if the elements A, B, C, D, E are added to the stack, as
shown in the diagram, then the first element to be removed/deleted must be E. Equivalently we
say that the last element to be inserted into the stack will be the first to be removed. For this
reason stacks are sometimes referred to as Last In First Out (LIFO) lists.

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Queues
A queue is an data structure (ordered list) in which all insertions take place at one end, the rear,
while all deletions take place at the other end, the front.

Queues occur naturally in situations where the rate at which clients’ demand for services
can exceed the rate at which these services can be supplied.

For example, in a network where many computers share only a few printers, the print jobs may
accumulate in a print queue.

Operations
The main primitive operations of a queue are known as:
Add adds a new node
Remove removes a node

The restrictions on queue imply that the first element which is inserted into the queue will be the
first one to be removed. Thus A is the first letter to be removed, and queues are known as First In
First Out (FIFO) lists.

a graph

In computer science, a graph is a kind of data structure, specifically an abstract data type (ADT),
that consists of a set of nodes (also called vertices) and a set of edges that establish relationships
(connections) between the nodes.

Some data need to have connections between items which do not fit into a hierarchy. Graph
data structures can be useful in these situations. A graph consists of a number of data items, each
of which is called a vertex. Any vertex may be connected to any other, and these connections are
called edges.

The following figure shows a graph in which the vertices are the names of cities in North
America. The edges could represent flights between these cities, or possibly Wide Area
Network links between them.

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 Graph

Typical operations associated with graphs are:

Finding a path between two nodes, like depth-first search and breadth-first search and finding the
shortest path from one node to another

File structure
File structure is the hierarchy of folders or directories on your disk or hard drive. It is also called
directory structure or directory hierarchy. The way data is structured on a disk. Can also refer to
the way data is structured into records and fields within a database file.

File
A collection of data or information that has a name, called the filename. Almost all information
stored in a computer must be in a file. There are many different types of files: data files, text files
, program files, directory files, and so on. Different types of files store different types of
information. For example, program files store programs, whereas text files store text.

Features
A file is a package of information with a name attached to it.
 Your files stay around after you have logged out.
 Files are used for various purposes:
o Files can record data, such as text or numbers.
o Some files record ways to perform various processing procedures on data. These
are referred to as programs or commands.
 Conceptually, a file is a sequence of characters, which resides somewhere on a disk.

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  Files take up space on disk.

Record
In a database, a record (sometimes called a row) is a group of fields within a table each of which
contains one item of information. A set of records constitutes a file. For example, a table called
customer information, might have a record that contain fields such as: ID number, name, street
address, city, telephone number and so on.

Some programming languages allow you to define a special data structure called a record.
Generally, a record is a combination of other data objects. For example, a record might contain
three integers, a floating-point number, and a character string

Fixed Length Record

A fixed-length record is one in which every field has a fixed length.

 each record consists of the same fixed number of bytes,

 each record is made up of the same number of fields, and
 each different type of field has the same number of bytes in every record.

Some fields are always the same length (eg Postcode is always 7 characters). Some fields may
need to be 'padded out' so they are the correct length
(eg Surname - If 15 characters are stored then Jenkins would be stored as 'JENKINS '-7
characters followed by 8 spaces).

Advantage : Access is fast because the computer knows where each record starts.

Eg If each record is 120 bytes long then

 the 1st record starts at [Start of File] + 0 bytes

 the 2nd record starts at [Start of File] + 120 bytes
 the 3rd record starts at [Start of File] + 240 bytes etc.....

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Disadvantage : Using Fixed length records, the records are usually larger and therefore need
more storage space and are slower to transfer (load or save).

In the Example

NUMBER SURNAME FORENAME YEAR FORM DOB

92013 JONES Sidney 12 B 23/04/78
92107 LAIDLAW Lorraine 12 Y 12/11/79
92114 MERRITT Mandy 12 G 08/03/79
92167 NASH Natasha 12 B 19/08/78

...the field lengths may be..

Number : 5
Surname: 15
Forename: 15
Year: 2
Form: 1
DOB: 8

Each record would be 46 bytes long.

Fixed-Length Computer Records

A typical computer file consists of a set of records of equal length: i.e., records such that

Variable-Length Computer Records

A record that has at least one variable-length field. i.e. one or more of the fields can be of
differing lengths in each record. The length of the entire record, therefore, varies according to
what data is placed in the variable-length field. Although a variable-length record may have a
maximum size, its length is otherwise determined by the amount of information necessary to
establish the record. Variable-length records give the file owner added flexibility but may
consume more computer time than fixed-length records.

Advantages:
 the records will be smaller and will need less storage space
 the records will load faster

Disadvantages:

 The computer will be unable to determine where each record starts so processing the
records will be slower.

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 Management Information Systems

According to Phillip Kotler "A marketing information system consists of people, equipment, and
procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate
information to marketing decision makers."

It is a planned system of the collecting, processing, storing and disseminating data in the form of
information needed to carry out the functions of management. Management Information System
(M.I.S.) is basically concerned with processing data into information which is then
communicated to the various Departments in an organization for appropriate decision-making.

Concept of MIS
MIS is an acronym (short form) of three words, viz., Management, Information and System.

Management : Knootz’s definition of management is widely recognized & used, which runs
as follows. ‘Management is the art of getting things done through & with the people in formally
organized groups’., However the manager in an organization does every task by performing
different managerial functions like Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing & Controlling in a
systematic way.

Information : Information is considered as a valuable resource required by the management

in order to run a business organization. Information is data that is processed & is present in a
form assists decision makers. It may contain an element of surprise, reduce uncertainty or
provoke a manager to initiate an action. The relation of data to information is that of raw material
to finished product, as shown below.

Data Processing Information

Relation of data to information

System : A system may be defined as a set of elements which are joined together to achieve a
common objective. The elements are inter-related & independent. Further every system is said to
be composed of sub-systems, which in turn are made up of other sub-systems. The set of
elements for a system may be understood as Input, Process & Output. A system has one or
multiple input(s); these inputs are processed through a transformation process to convert these
input(s) into output(s)

Input Process Output

Elements of a process

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Data collection involves the use of Information Technology (IT) comprising: computers and
telecommunications networks (E-Mail, Voice Mail, Internet, telephone, etc.)

MIS uses computer technology to provide information and decision support to managers, helping
them becomes more effective. Developments in the young computer industry are changing
corporate management style.

Computers are important for more quantitative, than qualitative, data collection, storage and
retrieval; Telecommunications provide the means for one-way or two-way communication and
for the transmission of messages. A combination of IT is used: telephone, computer, processor,
printer, etc. A lot of time and money are saved and the security of data and messages is ensured.

MIS provides several benefits to the business organization:

the means of effective and efficient coordination between Departments;
quick and reliable referencing;
access to relevant data and documents;
use of less labour;
improvement in organizational and departmental techniques;
management of day-to-day activities (as accounts, stock control, payroll, etc.);
day-to-day assistance in a Department and closer contact with the rest of the world.

It is important to note that whatever IT is installed must be appropriate to the organization, and to
each department

Role of Management Information Systems

The role of MIS in the organization is exactly the same as the role of heart in the blood. The
system ensures that an appropriate data is collected from the various sources, processed, and sent
further to all the needy destinations. The system is expected to fulfill the information needs of an
individual, a group of individuals, the management functionaries: the managers and the top
management.

The MIS satisfies the diverse needs through a variety of systems such as Query Systems,
Analysis Systems, Modeling Systems and Decision Support Systems. The MIS helps in Strategic
Planning, Management Control, Operational Control and Transaction Processing.

The MIS helps the clerical personnel in the transaction processing and answers their queries on
the data pertaining to the transaction, the status of a particular record and references on a variety
of documents. The MIS helps the junior management personnel by providing the operational data
for planning, scheduling and control, and helps them further in decision making at the operations
level to correct an out of control situation. The MIS helps the middle management in short term
planning, target setting and controlling the business functions. It is supported by the use of the
management tools of planning and control. The MIS helps the top management in goal setting,
strategic planning and evolving the business plans and their implementation.

IMPACT OF THE MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

Since the MIS plays a very important role in the organization, it creates an impact on the
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organization’s functions, performance and productivity.
The impact of MIS on the functions is in its management. With a good MIS support, the
management of marketing, finance, production and personnel becomes more efficient. The
tracking and monitoring of the functional targets becomes easy. The functional managers are
informed about the progress, achievements and shortfalls in the activity and the targets. The
manager is kept alert by providing certain information indicating the probable trends in the
various aspects of business. This helps in forecasting and long-term perspective planning. The
manager’s attention is brought to a situation which is exceptional in nature, inducing him to take
an action or a decision in the matter. A disciplined information reporting system creates a
structured database and a knowledge base for all the people in the organization. The information
is available in such a form that it can be used straight away or by blending and analysis, saving
the manager’s valuable time

The MIS creates another impact in the organization which relates to the understanding of the
business itself.

The MIS calls for a systemization of the business operations for an effective system design. This
leads to streamlining of the operations which complicate the system design. It improves the
administration of the business by bringing a discipline in its operations as everybody is required
to follow and use systems and procedures. This process brings a high degree of professionalism
in the business operations.

Since the goals and objectives of the MIS are the products of business goals and objectives, it
helps indirectly to pull the entire organization in one direction towards the corporate goals and
objectives by providing the relevant information to the people in the organization.

Since the MIS works on the basic systems such as transaction processing and databases, the slog
of clerical work is transferred to the computerized system, relieving the human mind for better
work. Nearly seventy per cent of the individual’s utilization and its application, time is spent in
recording, searching, processing and communicating. This is a very large overhead in the
organization. The MIS has a direct impact on this overhead. It creates an information-based work
culture in the organization

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM AND COMPUTER

Translating the real concept of the MIS into reality is technically, an infeasible proposition
unless computers are used. The MIS relies heavily on the hardware and software capacity of the
computer and its ability to store, process, retrieve and communicate with no serious limitations.

The variety of the hardware having distinct capabilities makes it possible to design the MIS for a
specific situation. For example, if the organization needs a large database and very little
processing, a computer system is available for such a requirement. Suppose the organization has
multiple business locations at long distances and if the need is to bring the data at one place,
process, and then send the information to various locations, it is possible to have a computer
system with a distributed data processing capability. If the distance is too long, then the computer
system can be hooked through a satellite communication system. The ability of the hardware to
store data and process it at a very fast rate helps to deal with the data volumes, its storage and
access effectively. The ability of the computer to sort and merge helps to organize the data in a
particular manner and process it for complex lengthy computations. Since the computer is

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capable of digital, graphic, word, image, voice and text processing, it is exploited to generate
information and present it in the form which is easy to understand for the information user.

The ability of a computer system to provide security of data brings a confidence in the
management in the storage of data on a magnetic media in an impersonal mode. The computer
system provides the facilities such as READ ONLY where you cannot delete or UPDATE. It
provides an access to the selected information through a password and layered access facilities.
The confidential nature of the data and information can be maintained in a computer system.
With this ability, the MIS becomes a safe application in the organization.

The software, an integral part of a computer system, further enhances the hardware capability.
The software is available to handle the procedural and nonprocedural data processing. For
example, if you want to use a formula to calculate a certain result, an efficient language is
available to handle the situation. If you are not required to use a formula but have to resort every
time to a new procedure, the nonprocedural languages are available.

The software is available to transfer the data from one computer system to another. Hence, you
can compute the results at one place and transfer them to a computer located at another place for
some other use. The computer system being able to configure to the specific needs
helps to design a flexible MIS.

The advancement in computers and the communication technology has made the distance, speed,
volume and complex computing an easy task. Hence, designing the MIS for a specific need and
simultaneously designing a flexible and open system becomes possible, thereby saving a lot of
work of development and maintenance of the system. The concept of user-friendly systems and
the end user computing is possible, making information processing a personalized function.
However, the application of the management principles and practices in today’s complex
business world is possible only when the MIS is based on a computer system support

Applications (Support) of MIS

With computers being as ever-present as they are today, there's hardly any large business that
does not rely extensively on their IT systems.

However, there are several specific fields in which MIS has become invaluable.

* Strategy Support

While computers cannot create business strategies by themselves they can assist management in
understanding the effects of their strategies, and help enable effective decision-making.

MIS systems can be used to transform data into information useful for decision making.
Computers can provide financial statements and performance reports to assist in the planning,
monitoring and implementation of strategy.

MIS systems provide a valuable function in that they can collate into coherent reports
unmanageable volumes of data that would otherwise be broadly useless to decision makers. By
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studying these reports decision-makers can identify patterns and trends that would have remained
unseen if the raw data were consulted manually.

MIS systems can also use these raw data to run simulations – hypothetical scenarios that answer
a range of ‘what if’ questions regarding alterations in strategy. For instance, MIS systems can
provide predictions about the effect on sales that an alteration in price would have on a product.
These Decision Support Systems (DSS) enable more informed decision making within an
enterprise than would be possible without MIS systems.

* Data Processing

Not only do MIS systems allow for the collation of vast amounts of business data, but they also
provide a valuable time saving benefit to the workforce. Where in the past business information
had to be manually processed for filing and analysis it can now be entered quickly and easily
onto a computer by a data processor, allowing for faster decision making and quicker reflexes for
the enterprise as a whole.

Benefits of MIS

The field of MIS can deliver a great many benefits to enterprises in every industry. Expert
organizations such as the Institute of MIS along with peer reviewed journals such as MIS
Quarterly continue to find and report new ways to use MIS to achieve business objectives.

Core Competencies

Every market leading enterprise will have at least one core competency – that is, a function they
perform better than their competition. By building an exceptional management information
system into the enterprise it is possible to push out ahead of the competition. MIS systems
provide the tools necessary to gain a better understanding of the market as well as a better
understanding of the enterprise itself.

Enhance Supply Chain Management

Improved reporting of business processes leads inevitably to a more streamlined production

process. With better information on the production process comes the ability to improve the
management of the supply chain, including everything from the sourcing of materials to the
manufacturing and distribution of the finished product.

Quick Reflexes

As a corollary to improved supply chain management comes an improved ability to react to

changes in the market. Better MIS systems enable an enterprise to react more quickly to their
environment, enabling them to push out ahead of the competition and produce a better service
and a larger piece of the pie.

Further information about MIS can be found at the Bentley College Journal of MIS and the US
Treasury’s MIS handbook, and an example of an organizational MIS division can be found at the
Department of Social Services for the state of Connecticut.

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