As a result, using these operating systems, stream files generally do not have newlines. We need to be able to get data in and out of a stream file. We can separate fields with delimiters . A record is a set of fields that belong together. For many people using text files, each record takes up exactly one line.
Records can be a predictable number of fields.
In our stream example, each record had five fields. Each record can begin with a length indicator. Each record can end with a delimiter. Index files are designed for direct access. Data in a binary file, especially numbers, are stored in binary.