Effective File Storage and Searching
Sumitra Shrestha 800788426 Computer Science Southern Illionis University Edwardsville Edwardsville, Illinois, USA sumshre@siue.edu
Abstract— Current file managers are quite overwhelming and complex to users since there is lack of flexibility in terms of custom file organization and search methods. Also, there are issues with storage usage and slow retrieval of files. Text compression can be considered as an approach in reducing storage space efficiently [1]. The project aims to develop flexible and effective file storage and searching system to address these challenges faced by users in managing files. The proposed solution involves implementing file compression using two greedy algorithms Huffman Coding and Lempel–Ziv–Welch(LZW) algorithms for reducing storage usage and incorporation of another advanced dynamic programming algorithm called edit distance for measuring the similarity among files. The similarity measurement will assist users in identifying relevant similar files together in a near distance. The project includes creating manual datasets that will represent real-world file systems. The files will be text based only for now and future extension of this project involves implementation that considers other formats like audio and video files as well. Also, to show diversity in file types, generation of random file names, content, and metadata is implemented. The outcome of this project is flexible and efficient file storage and retrieval system for user convenience and systems accountability with implementation of three advanced algorithms Huffman Coding, LZW which are greedy algorithms and Edit distance which is dynamic programming algorithm. Systems performance and effectiveness are evaluated based on storage usage reduction, search speed improvement and user satisfaction.