Building a General Purpose Menu-Driven Text File Managed Relational Database System in Turbo Pascal

Turbo Pascal, a popular programming environment for DOS, was widely used for basic and intermediate-level programming tasks. This article demonstrates the construction of a simple but versatile database system, encompassing a to-do list manager and a notepad feature, all managed via a text file. This system is designed using menu-driven navigation, making it easy for users to interact with the system without the need for complex command-line handling.

The provided code is a basic implementation of such a system, utilizing a record-oriented data structure to store to-do items, along with simple text file operations to manage the data persistently. It provides a practical example of how to manage relational data in a menu-driven environment using Turbo Pascal.

Code Overview

The code provided is a Turbo Pascal program designed to create, manage, and interact with a text file-based relational database system. The system includes two primary functionalities: a to-do list manager and a notepad feature. Below is a detailed breakdown of the code structure and functionality.

Record Definition and Data Structures

The program defines a To-Do Item record with the following fields:

Title: string[50] - The title or name of the to-do item. Desciption: string[100] - A detailed description of the to-do item. DueDate: string[20] - The due date of the to-do item, stored as a string for simplicity.

The to-do items are stored in an array ToDoList, which is capable of holding up to 100 items. A NumItems variable acts as a counter to keep track of the number of items in the array.

Menu-Driven Navigation

The system is navigated using a menu-driven approach, allowing users to easily switch between the to-do list manager and the notepad feature. The main menu features the following options:

To-Do List Manager Notepad Feature Exit

Each of these options further presents sub-menus for specific actions, such as adding a new to-do item, displaying the to-do list, creating, viewing, or editing text notes, and exiting the program.

Key Functions

AddToDoItem

This procedure prompts the user for to-do item details and adds them to the ToDoList array. The user is asked to input the title, description, and due date of the to-do item, which are then stored in the appropriate fields of the ToDoItem record.

DisplayToDoList

This procedure iterates through the ToDoList array and prints each to-do item to the screen. This allows users to review their list of to-do items at any time.

NotepadFeature

The notepad feature allows users to create, view, edit, and save text notes. This feature significantly extends the utility of the database system, providing a versatile text editing environment.

Implementation

The ShowMainMenu procedure handles the menu-driven navigation, presenting the main menu and the respective sub-menus. It uses a series of nested case statements to route user choices to the appropriate functions.

For example, when the user selects the 'To-Do List Manager' option, the system presents a sub-menu for adding a new to-do item, displaying the existing to-do list, or returning to the main menu. Similarly, the 'Notepad Feature' menu allows the user to create, view, edit, or save text notes, with options to return to the main menu as well.

Conclusion

This article and the accompanying code demonstrate a simple yet effective method of creating a menu-driven, text file managed relational database system in Turbo Pascal. The system is designed for ease of use and can serve as a foundation for more complex database applications.

Keywords: Turbo Pascal, Database Management, Text File Management, Menu-Driven System