Flat file
A plain file that holds one table, usually one record per line, with no links to other tables. A CSV export is the most familiar example.
A flat file carries values and little else. Types, allowed values, and relationships to other tables have to be supplied by whoever reads it.
Where it comes up
- Numbers stored as textA column of quantities contains symbols, separators, or words that stop software reading it as numbers.
- Line breaks inside cellsA cell contains a line break, so one record can spill across several lines of the file.
See also
- CSVComma-separated values: a plain text file format in which each line is a row and commas separate the values in it.
- DelimiterThe character that separates values: the comma between fields in a CSV file, or the semicolon between items in a list packed into one cell.
- Tabular dataData arranged in rows and columns, where each row is one item and each column holds one attribute of every item.