Using Record Formats
The record format
of an external file might affect how data is read with column input
and formatted input. A record format specifies
how records are organized in a file. Two common record formats are
fixed-length records and variable-length records.
Fixed-Length Records
External files that have a fixed-length record format
have an end-of-record marker after a predetermined number of columns.
A fixed-length format ends at the same ending point (for example,
at 80).
Variable-Length Records
Files that have a variable-length record
format have an end-of-record marker after the last field in each record.
As you can ...