The File Based System

File based systems are an early attempt to computerise the manual filing system. For example, a manual file can be set up to hold all the correspondence relating to an exacting matter as a project, product, task, employee or client. In an organisation there could be a lot of such files which may be stored and labelled. The same could be done at homes where file relating to tax payments, bank statements, receipts, etc., could be maintained.

What do we do to search information from these files? For finding of information, the entries could be searched in sequence. Alternatively, an indexing system could be used to situate the information.

The manual filing system works well when the amount of items to be stored is small. It even works fairly well when the number of items stored is fairly large and they are only needed to be retrieved and stored. Though, a manual file system crashes when processing of information and cross-referencing in the files is carried out. For instance, in a university a number of students are enrolled who have the options of doing many courses. The university may have divide files for the personal details of students, fees paid by students, the number and details of the courses taught, the number and details of each faculty member in many departments. Consider the effort to answer the following queries.

• Annual fees given by the students of Computer science department.
• Number of students requiring transport facility from a specific area.
• This year's turnover of students as compared to last year.
• Number of students opting for dissimilar courses from dissimilar departments.

The solutions to all the questions above would be time consuming in the file based system and cumbersome.