Fixed-Length Records

• If all the records are the same length, it becomes easy to modify them

  • The 'gappy files' code can dispense with the two hard cases

• Suppose the file has the following format:

  • 8-character username

  • 5-character user ID

  • 13-character encrypted password

  • 20-character surname

  • 18-character given name

• Each record is exactly 64 bytes

     billg   666  xyPXkPQTjCjnUGates               William           
     mjd     119  A12FMTJGN5wpYDominus             Mark Jason
     longuser123453OUbq7V0pV9doLongusername-EarwiggFeatherstonehaughs
     larry   1    ..qQYY3gYY0yAWall                Larry             
     ...

• Note that fields may now contain spaces or any other data

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Copyright © 2003 M. J. Dominus