O que (quem) é flat file - definição
DATABASE STORED AS AN ORDINARY UNSTRUCTURED FILE (FLAT FILE)
Flat-file; Flat file database; Flat file; Flat database; Flat File; Flatfile database; Flatfile
flat file
¦ noun Computing a file that has no internal hierarchy.
flat file
<operating system, storage> A single file containing {flat
ASCII} representing or encoding some structure, e.g. a
database, tree or network.
Flat files can be processed with general purpose tools such as
Perl and text editors but are less efficient than {binary
files} if they must be parsed repeatedly by a program. Flat
files are more portable between different operating systems
and application programs than binary files, and are more
easily transmitted in electronic mail.
See also flatten, sharchive.
[Jargon File ]
(1996-01-26)
flat file database
<database> A database containing a single table, stored in
a single flat file, often in a human-readable format such as
comma-separated values or fixed-width columns.
(2008-06-16)
Wikipédia
Flat-file database
A flat-file database is a database stored in a file called a flat file. Records follow a uniform format, and there are no structures for indexing or recognizing relationships between records. The file is simple. A flat file can be a plain text file (e.g. csv, txt or tsv), or a binary file. Relationships can be inferred from the data in the database, but the database format itself does not make those relationships explicit.
The term has generally implied a small database, but very large databases can also be flat.
