Processing Flat Files in Multiple Orders.
Sometimes users may want to process flat files in ways that are not readily supported by the file organi-zation. Consider, for example, the ENROLLMENT records shown in Figure H-1(a). To produce student schedules, they must be processed in StudentNumber sequence. But to produce class rosters, the rec-ords need to be processed in ClassNumber sequence. The records, of course, can be stored in only one physical sequence. For example, they can be in order on StudentNumber or on ClassNumber, but not on both at the same time. The traditional solution to the problem of processing records in different orders is to sort them in student order and process the student schedules and then sort the records in class order and produce class rosters.