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Jul 26Lose Some Padding
by in Feature Articles on 2026-08-03Flat-file style databases were designed to fit the constraints of the systems they were running on. You specify your schema in terms of "how many characters in a file we use to store this data", meaning something like this: JOHN SMITH 12343rd StAnytown PA12345 is read in my knowing that the first name field is 8 characters wide, the last name field is 8 characters wide, the street number is 4 digits, and so on.
It's also a terrible schema, and woe to anyone with a long name. But many a mainframe had a similar schema.