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