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9618 A2 COMPUTER SCIENCE REVIEW

NOTES

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Adam Li

2025 10 21

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CHAPTER 13 DATA REPRESENTATION

13.1 User-defined data types

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(a) Show understanding of why user-defined types are necessary
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• Def It is a data type created by the programmer, not provided by
the programming language like built-in types such as INTEGER,
REAL, or STRING.
• Built-in data types (like INTEGER, REAL, STRING) cannot
store complex data in one place.
• Using separate variables or arrays to store related data is harder
to manage and can make the code confusing.
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(b) Define and use non-composite types,Including enumerated, pointer

• Def: A non-composite data type holds only a single value, like

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INTEGER, REAL, or BOOLEAN.

• An enumerated data type is a user-defined type that lists all

possible values it can take, usually as named constants.
•
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//
TYPE <identifier> = (value1, value2, value3, ... )
//
TYPE Tmonth = (January, February, March, April,May,
June, July, August, September, October, November, December)

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 // Tmonth
DECLARE thisMonth : Tmonth

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DECLARE nextMonth : Tmonth

//

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thisMonth ← January
nextMonth ← thisMonth + 1

• Representing days of the week in a scheduling system. becuase

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it limits the values to a fixed set, preventing invalid data (e.g.
”Funday” or misspelled strings).
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TYPE Day = (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,

a Friday, Saturday, Sunday) // days of the week

TYPE TrafficLight = (Red, Amber, Green) // traffic light
TYPE Grade = (A, B, C, D, E, U) // grade
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TYPE Season = (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter)

• A pointer is a data type that stores the memory address of an-

other variable.
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• It is used to access and manipulate data indirectly, and is essential

for dynamic data structures like linked lists and trees.
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//
TYPE <pointer> = ^<Typename>
// pointer
TYPE TmonthPointer = ^Tmonth
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//
DECLARE monthPointer : TmonthPointer

//
monthPointer ← ^thisMonth // reference

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 myMonth ← monthPointer^ // dereference

(c) Define and use composite data types, including set, record and class/ob-

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ject

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• A composite data type stores multiple values in one structure;

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it can be built-in (like an array) or user-defined (like a record).
• A Set is a data type that stores an unordered collection of unique
elements of the same type.
• Operations such as union, intersection, and difference are not

•
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within the scope of the exam.
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\\
TYPE <set-identifier> = SET OF <Basetype>
\\
DEFINE <identifier> (value1, value2, value3, ... ) :
<set-identifier>
\\
TYPE Sletter = SET OF CHAR
DEFINE vowel ('a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u') : Sletter
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• Record data type has been covered in AS Chapter10

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• Class data type will be introduced in chapter 20

(d) Choose and design an appropriate user-defined data type for a given
problem

• To store a library loan record including book title, issue date, and
return status → use a RECORD.
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• To define the seasons of a year (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Win-

ter) → use an ENUMERATED type.
• To store the usernames of currently online users with no dupli-
cates → use a SET.

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 • To reference a child node in a tree structure → use a POINTER.
• To represent an exam result with score, grade, pass status, and a
method to calculate average → use a CLASS.

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13.2 File organisation and access

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(a) Show understanding of the methods of file organisation and select
an appropriate method of file organisation and file access for a given
problem, Including serial, sequential (using a key field), random (using

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a record key)

File Organisation Selection

• Serial file organisation is suitable when data is always added at
the end, such as logging transactions or event records.
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• It is ideal when no searching or sorting is required, and records
are processed in the order they were entered.
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• It is appropriate when the application does not require fast access
or searching, and data is only processed through batch processing.

• Sequential file organisation is suitable when records are stored in

a specific order, typically based on a key field (e.g. ID number).
• It is ideal when data needs to be searched in order
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• It is preferred over serial when searching efficiency is needed, and

over random when updates are infrequent and batch processing
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is used.

• Random file organisation is suitable when fast access to individual

records is required using a key, such as account number or student
ID.
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• It is ideal for real-time systems where records need to be retrieved

or updated immediately without reading the whole file.
• It is preferred over serial or sequential when frequent searches,
updates, or insertions are needed and performance is critical.

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 Data Storage
• For serial records are stored in the order they are entered, one
after another. (chronologically )

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• New records are simply appended to the end of the file.

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• For Sequential, Records are stored in a specific order, usually
based on a key field such as ID or name.
• New records must be inserted in the correct position, often re-

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quiring rewriting the file to maintain the order.

• For Random, Records are stored at calculated locations in the file

using a hashing algorithm based on a key field.

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• This allows direct access to records without reading the file se-
quentially.
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(b) Show understanding of methods of file access,Including Sequential ac-
cess for serial and sequential files and Direct access for sequential and
random files

• Sequential access method can access serial or sequential file

• Direct access method can access sequential file and random
file
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• Sequential access means reading or writing records in order, one

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after another, starting from the beginning of the file.

• To find a specific record, each record must be checked in sequence
until the target is found, or a record with a larger key is encoun-
tered (in an ordered file), or the end of the file is reached.
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• Direct access means accessing a specific record directly by calcu-

lating its location, often using a key field and hashing or indexing.
• There is no need to read previous records, unlike sequential access.
• It is used in systems where fast retrieval or frequent updates are
required, such as databases or banking systems.

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 Additional
Direct access is not natively supported in a sequential file
because records are stored one after another in key order,

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and there is no indexing or hashing to allow immediate access
to a specific record.

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However, if each record in the file has a fixed length, and the
size of each record (in bytes) is known, it becomes possible
to calculate the exact position of a desired record in the file
using its position in the sequence. sequential

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direct

Indexed sequential file sequential direct

access random ac-
cess

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(c) Show understanding of hashing algorithms, describe and use differ-
ent hashing algorithms to read from and write data to a random /
sequential file
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