| Sequential Access | ||
| File
access is the method of locating and retrieving a record from
a file. There are four main methods of file access:
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Serial access is where the records
are read from the file, one at a time, starting from the beginning, in
the order in which they are stored
until the required record is found.
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Sequential access is where the
records are read in key value order
until the required record is found.
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In a sequential file where the
records are stored in key value order, serial access and sequential
access are the same thing. If there are a number of changes to records in a file, then if these changes are sorted into key value order, sequential processing provides a good way of making the changes, as there would be no need for backtracking through the records.
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