I think we are talking about slightly different things.
Suppose you had a list of subjects and attributes- think of these as a series of checkboxes (just for the moment)
And suppose you assign one of your filenumbers to a "record" .
The record would identify the file and all the attributes that apply to that file.
And suppose you did that for all of your files.
Now if you search by a series of attributes, only the files with those attributes would be identified.
Now since you files are stored electronically (digitized), suppose you have a form(screen display) that listed the file
numbers that were selected. Also suppose on that form was an option to click on the file number and display the
digitized record on the display.
Code:
--record has attribute where X is present-------
Record0000001 XX X X X XXX XX X
Record0000002 X XX X X X
Record0000003 X XX X X
Record0999999 X XX XX X XX
By searching based on a combination of attributes, you get a list of records with those file numbers.
This is just for concepts.
Comments?