3.3.7 Explain the relationship between master and transaction files.
Teaching Note:
This should relate to the examples in 3.3.6. 3
JSR Notes:
Since this is to relate back to 3.3.6, we must be talking primarily about batch processing.
Certainly real-time processing can be recorded, and certain summative information can be best done at the end of the day, - such as the statistics for take-off and landing at an airport, or the average heart-beat rate of a patient over a day. Neither of these batch/summative transfers of information to a master file changes the real-time nature of air-traffic control or patient monitoring. But, yes, you could speak of having constant "transaction" files collected and updated periodically to a master file.
But when you're talking about batch processing, it is the updating of all the transactions during a certain period to a master file that is really is the batch process itself.
So, anyway, the transaction file is a "record" if you will, of the master file. Or put another way, the master file is made up of transaction files. And this updating is usually done in a batch process, at the end of a certain period of time, like an hour, a day, or a month.