InformationWeek SMB TechEncyclopedia

A collection of bytes stored as an individual entity. All data on disk is stored as a file with an assigned file name that is unique within the folder (directory) it resides in.

     To the computer, a file is nothing more than a string of bytes. The structure of a file is known to the software that manipulates it. For example, database files are made up of a series of records. Word processing files contain a continuous flow of text.

     Except for ASCII text files, which contain only raw text, other files have proprietary structures. Formatting and other types of information are contained in headers or interspersed throughout the file. Following are the major file types. See file association.

Type Contents
data file (table) data records
document text
spreadsheet rows and columns of cells
image rows and columns of bits
drawing list of vectors
audio digitized sound waves
MIDI MIDI instructions
video digital video frames
Web page text
batch file text
source program text
executable program machine language