Computing Dictionary
file type definition
file format The kind of data stored in a file. Most modern
operating systems use the
filename extension to determine the file type though others store this information elsewhere in the
file system. The file type is used to choose an appropriate icon to represent the file in a
GUI and the correct
application with which to view, edit, run, or print the file.
Different operating systems support different sets of file types though most agree on a large common set and allow arbitrary new types to be defined.
See also
MIME.
FileInfo.com - The File Extensions Resource (http://fileinfo.com/) (2009-03-27)
