Limitations of file based system, Database Management System

Assignment Help:

Limitations of File Based System

The file-based system has some limitations. The limitations are listed as follows:

  • Isolation and separation of data: When the data is stored in separate files it becomes complex to access. It becomes very complex when the data has to be retrieved from more than two files as a large amount of data has to be looked for.
  • Duplication of data: Because of the decentralised approach, the file system varies to uncontrolled duplication of data. This is disagreeable as the duplication leads to wastage of a lot of storage space. It also money and cost times to enter the data more than once. For instance, the address information of student may have to be duplicated in bus list file data.
  • Inconsistent Data: The data in a file system can become inconsistent if more than one person changes the data simultaneously, for example, if any student changes the residence and the change is notified to only his/her file and not to bus list. Putting wrong data is also another reason for inconsistencies.
  • Data dependence: The physical structure and storage of data files and records are distinct in the application code. This means that it is very difficult to make changes to the existing structure. The programmer would have to recognize all the affected programs, change them and retest them. This characteristic of the File Based system is known as program data dependence.
  • Incompatible File Formats: As the structure of the files is embedded in application programs, the structure is fully dependent on application programming languages. Therefore the structure of a file generated by COBOL programming language may be quite dissimilar from a file generated by 'C' programming language. This incompatibility makes them hard to process together. The application developer may have to develop software to change the files to some common format for processing. Though, this may be time consuming and expensive.
  • Fixed Queries: File based systems are very much dependent on application programs. Any report or query needed by the organisation has to be developed by the application programmer. With type, the time, and number of queries or reports increases. Producing dissimilar types of queries or reports is not possible in File Based Systems. As a result, in some organisations the kind of queries or reports to be produced is fixed. No latest query or report of the data could be produced.

Besides the above, the maintenance of the File Based System is complex and there is no provision for security. Recovery is non-existent or inadequate.


Related Discussions:- Limitations of file based system

Explain pipelining, Explain pipelining.        Ans: In order to describ...

Explain pipelining.        Ans: In order to describe pipelining in simple terms, think of it as breaking down processor functions into smaller and smaller parts. For instance,

Assignment, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani Work-Integrated...

Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani Work-Integrated Learning Programmes Division Second Semester 2012-2013 EC-1 Assignment 2 (7.5% of the grade) Course No. : SS ZG

Can a domain, Can a domain, assigned to a data element be changed? Yes....

Can a domain, assigned to a data element be changed? Yes.  We can do so by just overwriting the entry in the field domain.

Computer, 1. Will you advise that your organization uses open source softwa...

1. Will you advise that your organization uses open source software and why? 2. Why is it important for business managers to have a basic understanding of the software development

Give an example of operations from the state actions, Give an example of op...

Give an example of operations from the State Actions and Activities. For instance, in bank the activity verify account code and verify password

Define the division operation of relational algebra, Define the Division Op...

Define the Division Operation of Relational Algebra Let R be a relation comprising attributes (A1,...Ap,Ap+1,...An) and S comprising attributes (Ap+1,...An)  DEF: Division

Create student db and perform delete operation, Create Student DB and perfo...

Create Student DB and perform delete operation? STUDENT (name, student#, class, major) COURSE (course name, course#, credit hours, department) SECTION (section identifier, co

Explain the uses of deadlock, Explain the uses of deadlock It will lea...

Explain the uses of deadlock It will lead to deadlock since this is the only place where incoming acknowledgements are processed. Without this code, sender will keep timing ou

Describe the types of attributes, Describe the types of attributes? Ty...

Describe the types of attributes? Types of attributes: An attribute's category determines the type of values that are permitted in the attribute. For instance, the value vers

Which types of data supported by mysql, Which types of data supported by My...

Which types of data supported by MySQL for Time and Date formats?  MySQL supports a number of time and date column formats: Some of them are 1) DATE 2) DATETIME 3) TIM

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd