ITPEC IP April 2026 Question 17

Topic: SoftwareAlso asked in Spring 2020 and October 2022

When a record in a file is modified, which of the following is an appropriate way of identifying the modified contents?

a)Keeping a record of the size and the modified date of a fileb)Keeping a copy of a file and comparing it to the modified one laterc)Keeping a record of the number of records into the filed)Keeping records sorted in ascending order of the key field

Explanation

Keeping a copy of the file and comparing it with the modified one later — only the contents before and after the change together show what was changed.

A modification can change any field of any record. To tell which ones, the original values are needed. Saving a copy of the file before it is modified and later comparing the two record by record, for example with a file comparison (diff) tool, lists exactly the records and fields that differ.

Answer (b)

Why not others:

•(a) — size and modified date show that the file was changed and when, not what; replacing a value with one of the same length does not even change the size
•(c) — the number of records changes only when records are added or deleted; modifying a record leaves it the same
•(d) — sorting by the key helps searching, but keeps no earlier value to compare against

Key rule: Metadata such as size, date or a record count can detect that something changed; finding what changed needs the earlier contents, the idea behind backups, version control and diff tools.

Software · AI-written, may contain errors

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