Understand serial files
Python programming language[1]
- Serial files store data with no order to the data maintained.
- To search data from a serial file you begin at the start of the file and read all the data until the item is found.
- Data cannot be deleted from a serial file without creating a new file and copying all the data except the item you want to delete.
- Data cannot be changed in a serial file without creating a new file, copying all the data across to a new file, inserting the change at the appropriate point.
- Data can be appended to a serial file.
- A file can be open for reading or writing, but not reading and writing at the same time.
- Serial files are quite limiting, but are useful for simple data sets and configuration files. Other types of files include: sequential files where order of the data is maintained, index sequential files for
- large data sets and random files which allow you to access any item without searching through the file from the start.