Answer
See the explanation
Work Step by Step
To implement a sequential file with variable-length logical records, such as storing information about novelists along with their works, you can use a structured text-based format like JSON or CSV (Comma-Separated Values). Here's a simple technique using JSON as an example:
1. **Define the Data Structure**: Decide on the structure of your data. For each novelist, you might have information like name, birthdate, nationality, and a list of their works.
2. **Serialize Data to JSON**: Serialize each novelist's information and their works into JSON format. For example:
```json
{
"novelist": {
"name": "Author Name",
"birthdate": "YYYY-MM-DD",
"nationality": "Country",
"works": [
{
"title": "Title 1",
"year": "YYYY"
},
{
"title": "Title 2",
"year": "YYYY"
}
]
}
}
```
3. **Write to Text File**: Write each JSON object to a text file sequentially, with each object representing one novelist's information and their works. You can separate each JSON object with a newline character for readability.
Here's a sample Python code to write the JSON objects to a text file:
```python
import json
# Sample data
novelists_data = [
{
"name": "Jane Austen",
"birthdate": "1775-12-16",
"nationality": "English",
"works": [
{"title": "Pride and Prejudice", "year": "1813"},
{"title": "Sense and Sensibility", "year": "1811"}
]
},
{
"name": "Charles Dickens",
"birthdate": "1812-02-07",
"nationality": "English",
"works": [
{"title": "Great Expectations", "year": "1861"},
{"title": "A Tale of Two Cities", "year": "1859"}
]
}
]
# Write data to a text file
with open("novelists.txt", "w") as file:
for novelist in novelists_data:
file.write(json.dumps({"novelist": novelist}) + '\n')
```
4. **Reading from the Text File**: To read the data back, you would read each line from the text file, parse the JSON object, and process the information accordingly.
This technique allows you to store variable-length records in a sequential text file format while maintaining structured data.
