where does the term flat-file come from?

Question

I was wondering if anyone knows. Is 'flat' the opposite of hierarchal? Does it come from a phrase like, "this is a flat-out regular file"?

Hardback

Your intuition of "flat" being the opposite of "hierarchical" is probably correct. Note from the definition that webdestroya gives, a flat file doesn't allow for hierarchical structuring of data (unlike, say, NeXTSTEP plists, XML or MS Windows ini files). – Bisk

s/webdestroya/Kathy Van Stone/, since webdestroya removed his. – Bisk

Answer 1

Looking at the wikipedia article (and one of its references), the 'flat' in flat file is as opposed to structured file, where the structure can be heirarchical, relational, or a few other formats.

Pa

+1 for reference and for mentioning that there are multiple types of structures a file can be in other than flat. – Hamner

reference link is broken – Castello

Thanks -- I could not quickly find an updated link, but I changed it to the wayback version. – Pa

Answer 2

A flat file is read into a flat data structure, it is essentially an array. One big flat list of values.

A better way to store data would be in a binary tree for example. this data is not flat as it has a root and nodes.

A non flat data structure makes sorting and search much more efficient.

Mut

Answer 3

Well an imaginative way would be flatfiles can be imagined in one plane, a flat surface ,the more complicated DBs have connection between tables which can only be imagined in 3d :P

Hanker

Answer 4

Your speculation is correct: flat files are "flat" in that they do not have an internal hierarchical structure.

Linchpin