on a computer file vs in a computer file

[ostap77]

Do we store pictures or infoprmation on a computer file or in a computer file?

 

[bhaisahab]

Do we store pictures or infoprmation on a computer file or in a computer file?

I'd say "in", but I don't think there is any rule.

 

[5jj]

I'd probably say 'on', though I'd use 'in' if the word 'computer' weren't there.

 

[Raymott]

We say, "We have it on file", "I have it stored on file somewhere." - in neither case would "in file" be used, though we might say, "I have it stored in my files somewhere."

 

[BobSmith]

[AmE - not a teacher]

Having information "on file" is not the same meaning as having information "in a file".

(With computers) Information is always stored in a file, in a directory, or in a folder. You might get away with "on a file on this disk", but that's because of the "on .. disk". It still should be "in a file on this disk".

 

[BobK]

Agreed. In the early days of computing (before the first ominous stirrings of MS/Dos V1.0, before even CP/M - which I trained on in the early '80s), software engineers appropriated a not entirely sound metaphor for virtual sorage of data. A file, before computers, was a collection of letters and other documents relating to one thing (a customer, a transaction... anything). In my first non-computer) job, a file contained information about one motor vehicle.

If something is 'on file' it's stored somewhere in the organization - quite possibly on paper, although nowadays it may be kept 'in a file' on a computer (or in 'the cloud'*).

b

* Cloud computing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[ostap77]

What about this sentence from an article? "The official would not describe the documents except to say that they appeared to contain classified material and were stored on a computer file."

 

[Tdol]

I would use in there.

 

[ostap77]

I didn't make it up! See for yourself Trailer park drug bust turns up Los Alamos documents | Concord Monitor

 

[5jj]

I didn't make it up!

Nobody suggested that you did.People differ in the way they use prepositions here.

 

[BobSmith]

What about this sentence from an article? "The official would not describe the documents except to say that they appeared to contain classified material and were stored on a computer file."

It definitely should be in here. However, after reading the following from the linked article, I believe the author maybe conflating "disk" and "file", given the history:

In 2004, the lab was essentially shut down after an inventory showed that two computer disks containing nuclear secrets were missing. ... the incident highlighted sloppy inventory control and security failures at the nuclear weapons lab. And the Energy Department began moving toward a five-year program to create a so-called diskless environment at Los Alamos to prevent any classified material being carried outside the lab.

Classified material can be stored in a file on a disk.