1.   Serial files are the simplest form of file organisation.

2.   When reading a serial file, EOF would go true when the last byte of the file had been read.

3.   However, once you have found the serial file you want, you still need to read through it to find the record you want.

4.   With serial files the records need only be as large as the data to be stored and there are no empty records.

5.   Consequently serial files are the most space efficient way to hold data in any storage medium.

6.   Serial files cannot be used to access particular records from within the file quickly and easily.

7.   The following sections contain examples of complete programs for serial files and random files.

8.   Consequently, you would use OPENUP for reading serial and random files, adding to the end of serial files or writing to random files.

9.   EOF is only really of use when dealing with serial files.