Fixed width file format is a data storage format that enables storing data in uniform columns regardless its length. It is especially useful for transferring massive amount of large data, as the width of each column is pre-defined.
The benefit of using such format is:
Efficiency: Using fixed width file format improves the capability to access data quickly. Since all the data is stored in equal-size columns, computer can efficiently read it without any need to parse through the data.
Ease of use: Even someone without programming experience can use and manipulate data stored in fixed-width file format, as all the information is clearly separated in columns.
Version control: As the width of columns is predefined, the data won’t ever change to a format, which is unrecognisable by the reader. So, data loss can be prevented.
Smaller file size: Since the width of columns are predefined, it allows to use fewer bytes than it would if the characters in each value were to be counted individually. Therefore, this allows to store huge amounts of data in much smaller file size.
Overall, fixed width file format is the ideal choice if you need to store large amounts of data without running into any problems with transferability, readability and version control.
