BrowserUk:

In my current job, not much. (Currently I write database query tools, reports & monitors.) In my previous job:

800MB .. 4GB

6GB

Windows XP, Windows Server 2003

NTFS

Credit card transaction information, customer billing information.

A mixture of:

• Flat files, fixed format: one line per record, fixed-width fields. 128-3200 bytes per record. Usually ASCII text or EBCDIC text + binary COMP fields.
• Flat files, delimited format: one line per record. 64-400(ish) bytes per record. Usually ASCII text.
• Hierarchical files, fixed format: like several flat file fixed format files shuffled together: Usually 128, 256 bytes per record. EBCDIC+binary COMP fields.
  • Merchant record
  • Chain record
  • Store record
  • Transaction record
• Various "printer report" files (mainframe printer files, each line with a prefix for carriage control & such.

I have a small collection of utilities I use to crank through 'em. For example, for some printer report files, I have a program that accepts an excel spreadsheet and it creates a C program to parse it and reformat it to a fixed format for importing into excel or a database. I also have a few programs that analyze files to help determine their contents and format.

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.