Question about difference between text file and database

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Hi in a simple application that consists of a couple of user input
forms. I'm wondering what the difference is between using a database
technology and a plain text file?

I've been working on this program for a week or so now and its a hobby
project. I have never understood how to work with databases in visual
studio (although I have strung together a couple of Microsoft access
databases in the past, by trial and error.)

As I don't understand databases I've opted to store the information in
a simple text file. I am delimitting fields with semicolons and using a
fixed format, so for instance I know the name of the person is always
the fifth delimitted bit of data on each line. So to search for a
particular persons records, I have written a class that searches the
fifth bit of data on each line for a matching name. And returns the
results as an array.

I'm just about to add some kind of primary key functionality to my text
file by numbering each record. I'm going to check the text file for
it's last entrys primary key and increment this by one to use as the
next records primary key.

All appears to be working ok.

My question is, am i fundamentally missing some point here? Or is my
simple text file, just as good as a 'database' for my project?

Thanks,

Gary.

.

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