file

The file structure of a simple accounting system which stores the name, date of birth, address, and account number of each client.

In computing, a collection of data or a program stored in a computer's external memory (for example, on disk). It might include anything from information on a company's employees to a program for an adventure game. Files are usually located via a directory. A popular method for identifying the format of a file is based on the part of its name following a full stop and is known as the file extension. A text file, for example, might have the extension .txt.

Database files usually consist of a set of records, each having a number of fields for specific items of data. For example, the data file for a class of schoolchildren might have a record for each child, with five fields of data in each record, storing: (1) family name; (2) first name; (3) house name or number; (4) street name; (5) town. To find out, for example, which children live in the same street, one would look in field 4.