Unit IV

File Organization
 File
• A file is named a collection of related
information that is recorded on secondary
storage such as magnetic disks, magnetic
tapes, and optical disks.
• File Organization defines how file records are
mapped onto disk blocks.
 Types
• Some types of File Organizations are:
• Sequential File Organization
• Heap File Organization
• Hash File Organization
• B+ Tree File Organization
• Clustered File Organization
• ISAM (Indexed Sequential Access Method)
Cont
 Sequential File Organization

• Sequential File Organization

• The easiest method for file Organization is the
Sequential method. In this method, the file is
stored one after another in a sequential
manner. There are two ways to implement
this method:
• Insertion of the new record: Let the R1, R3,
and so on up to R5 and R4 be four records in
the sequence. Here, records are nothing but a
row in any table. Suppose a new record R2 has
to be inserted in the sequence, then it is
simply placed at the end of the file.
 Sorted File Method

• In this method, As the name itself suggests

whenever a new record has to be inserted, it
is always inserted in a sorted (ascending or
descending) manner. The sorting of records
may be based on any primary key or any other
key.
Example
 Insert a new record
• Suppose a new record R2 has to be inserted in
the sequence, then it will be inserted at the
end of the file and then it will sort the
sequence.
Insert a new record
 Advantages of Sequential File
Organization
• Fast and efficient method for huge amounts of
data.
• Simple design.
• Files can be easily stored in magnetic tapes i.e.
cheaper storage mechanism.
 Disadvantages of Sequential File
Organization
• Time wastage as we cannot jump on a
particular record that is required, but we have
to move in a sequential manner which takes
our time.
• The sorted file method is inefficient as it takes
time and space for sorting records.
 Heap file Organization
• Heap File Organization works with data
blocks. In this method, records are inserted at
the end of the file, into the data blocks. No
Sorting or Ordering is required in this method.
• If a data block is full, the new record is stored
in some other block, Here the other data
block need not be the very next data block,
but it can be any block in the memory.
Heap file Organization
• Insertion of a New Record
• Let’s say we have five records in a heap, R1,
R3, R6, R4, and R5, and we wish to add a fifth
record, R2. If data block 3 is full, the DBMS will
insert it into whichever database it chooses,
such as data block 1.
 Advantages of Heap File
Organization
• Fetching and retrieving records is faster than
sequential records but only in the case of
small databases.
• When there is a huge number of data that
needs to be loaded into the database at a
time, then this method of file Organization is
best suited.Disadvantages of Heap File
Organization
• The problem of unused memory blocks.
• Inefficient for larger databases.
 Hash File Organization
• Hash File Organization uses the computation
of the hash function on some fields of a
record. The output of the hash function
defines the position of the disc block where
the records will be stored.
 Cluster File Organization
• Clusters are created when two or more
records are saved in the same file. There will
be two or more tables in the same block of
data in these files, and key attributes that are
used to link these tables together will only be
kept once.
Example
 File Operations

• Database file operations can be divided

broadly into two categories:
• Update Operations
• Retrieval Operations
 Update Operations

• Update operations alter the values of data by

inserting , deleting, or updating them. On the
other hand, retrieval operations do not
change the data, but retrieve it after optional
conditional filtering. Selection plays a major
role in all kinds of operations. There may be
other operations, other than creating and
deleting a file, that can be performed on files.
 Open
• Open - One of the two modes, read mode or
write mode, will open a file. The operating
system does not allow someone to change
data in the read mode. Data, in other words, is
read only. It is possible to share files opened
in read mode between many entities. Write
Mode allows modification of data. It is
possible to read files opened in write mode
but can not be exchanged.
 Locate
• Locate-Each file has a file pointer that tells the
current location where to read or write the
files. It is able to adjust this pointer
accordingly. It can be moved forward or
backward using a find (seek) operation.
 Read
• Read − By example, the file pointer points to
the beginning of the file when files are opened
in the read mode. There are options where
the user can tell the operating system at the
moment of opening a file where to find the
file pointer. It will read the very next data to
the file pointer.
 Write
• Write - The user may choose to open a file in
write mode, allowing them to modify its
contents. It can be deleted, inserted or
modified. The file pointer can be located at
the time of opening, or can be modified
dynamically if it is allowed to do so by the
operating system.
 Close
• Close -This is the most significant process
from the viewpoint of the operating system.
The operating system when a request to close
a file is generated
– Removes (if in shared mode) all locks,
– Save the data to the secondary storage media (if
altered) and
– It releases all the file-related buffers and file
handlers.