There is no real definition here of a flat file
However I would take it to mean a data file, probably fixed length

not necessarily ascii, without a definition or index file.

If ascii then there is a chance that there will be either a CR LF or

CR at then end of record. At the least I would expect to be able to

determine the number of records by  recordlength/file size

I would also expect to be able to random access the data

file offset record Number N = N -1 * Recordsize  where thsi is less than 

total file size. Specific fields of course will then be byte offsets within 

each record with a start and end position.

All of this seems very humdrum until you consider that these very issues

are behind the considerable wealth of RDMS system architecture.

The software that drive's Databases which we all take so much for granted.

  Tony <one_dev@h...> wrote: 
Nguyen,

From my experiences, a "flat file" simply means data stored in a text file
usually having the .txt or .dat extension.

Tony

"Nguyen Minh Tue" wrote in message
news:72761@s..._language...
>
> Please explain to me the concept of "flat file" in DB Concept.
> Thanks