Fixed and variable length fields

Fixed and variable length fields

1. Variable length fields

   • Some databases store only as much data as is needed
     • 'Fred' takes four bytes
     • 'Jennifer' takes eight bytes
   • Processing becomes more difficult
     • Finding particular records requires checking all the preceding entries sequentially

2. More common method is to reserve a suitable amount of space in a file and any unused bytes are padded with a character such as a space

   • This is less space efficient but makes processing more straightforward because bytes can be counted to reach the desired point