Editing Flat-file database (section)

==Example database==
The following example illustrates typical elements of a flat-file database. The [[data]] arrangement consists of a series of columns and rows organized into a [[table (information)|tabular format]]. This specific example uses only one table.

The columns include: ''name'' (a person's name, second column); ''team'' (the name of an athletic team supported by the person, third column); and a numeric ''unique ID'', (used to uniquely identify records, first column).

Here is an example textual representation of the described data:

 id    name    team
 1     Amy     Blues
 2     Bob     Reds
 3     Chuck   Blues
 4     Richard Blues
 5     Ethel   Reds
 6     Fred    Blues
 7     Gilly   Blues
 8     Hank    Reds
 9     Hank    Blues

This type of data representation is quite standard for a flat-file database, although there are some additional considerations that are not readily apparent from the text:
* '''Data types:''' each column in a database table such as the one above is ordinarily restricted to a specific [[data type]]. Such restrictions are usually established by convention, but not formally indicated unless the data is transferred to a [[relational database]] system.
* '''Separated columns:''' In the above example, individual columns are separated using [[Whitespace (computer science)|whitespace]] characters. This is also called indentation or "fixed-width" data formatting. Another common convention is to separate columns using one or more [[delimiter]] characters, such as a [[Comma-separated values|tab or comma]].
* '''Relational algebra:''' Each row or record in the above table meets the standard definition of a [[tuple]] under [[relational algebra]] (the above example depicts a series of 3-tuples). Additionally, the first row specifies the [[Tuple#Names|field names]] that are associated with the values of each row.
* '''Database management system:''' Since the formal operations possible with a text file are usually more limited than desired, the text in the above example would ordinarily represent an intermediary state of the data prior to being transferred into a [[database management system]].