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A-LevelComputer ScienceFile Handling and Data StorageMay/June 2021Paper 2 Q310 Marks

3 (a) A concert venue uses a program to calculate admission prices and store information about ticket sales. A number of arrays are used to store data. The computer is switched off overnight and data has to be input again at the start of each day before any tickets can be sold. This process is very time consuming. (i) Explain how the program could use text files to speed up the process. (ii) State the characteristic of text files that allow them to be used as explained in part (a)(i). (iii) Information about ticket sales will be stored as a booking. The booking requires the following data: • name of person booking • number of people in the group (for example a family ticket or a school party) • event type. Suggest how data relating to each booking may be stored in a text file. (b) A procedure Preview() will: • take the name of a text file as a parameter • output a warning message if the file is empty • otherwise output the first five lines from the file (or as many lines as there are in the file if this number is less than five). Write pseudocode for the procedure Preview().

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The correct answer is . This question tests the candidate's understanding of file handling and data storage within the Computer Sciencesyllabus. The examiner's mark scheme requires...

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About This A-Level Computer Science Question

This structured question appeared in the Cambridge A-Level Computer Science (9618) May/June 2021 examination, Paper 2 Variant 1. It tests the topic of File Handling and Data Storage and is worth 10 marks.

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