File extensions and File compression
A file extension is the last 3 or 4 words which make up a file name. This is also known as a suffix. If you were to change the name of a file extension (e.g. accidentally changing it when renaming a file). Then the file will not work. However, changing the file extension back to it's original name would make it work as normal again. An example of a file extension would be .exe or .avi. These letters determine what program it would open in. So an avi extension would tell the operating system to open it up as a video file.
Examples of file extensions:
JPEG- Image file
avi- video file
txt- Text file
doc-Word document
exe-executable (program)
mp3-music file
wav-sound file
These are just some examples of file extensions. There are many file extensions each for different programs for example, a .gmk file would be a file opened with Game Maker. However, you would need Game Maker installed on your computer in order for the file to be used. Because as the extension determines that the .gmk file is to be opened with Game Maker, if you don't have Game Maker on your computer the file cant be accessed.
File Compression is the process of reducing the size of a file to save disk space. A common way of compressing data is adding it to a 'zipped' folder. The file extension for a zipped folder is known ad .zip and when the contents of the file are zipped, they can be uploaded onto the internet for other users to download (this is known as file sharing). A regular folder cannot be downloaded just by itself, it can when being downloaded as a torrent file but besides this, multiple items which are in a file to be downloaded off the internet are always in a compressed state such as a zip file or a RAR (a RAR file is one of the other compression file extensions. RAR and zip are the most common compressed folders.).
There are two different types of file compression. Lossless and lossy. Lossless file compression is for mainly text and image files. This is a conviniant way to save file space as you don't lose any data with Lossless compression. Lossy on the other hand, can lose data when files are being compressed.
Extraction is the process of uncompressing the compressed files. Its very easy, you often just right click and click on 'extract files' and all of the files are returned to their original uncompressed state. When a user downloads a zip or rar file, they often extract it before using any files contained within as there are limitations will compressed files, especially those of lossy compression.
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| A list showing the icons of various file extensions. |
Examples of file extensions:
JPEG- Image file
avi- video file
txt- Text file
doc-Word document
exe-executable (program)
mp3-music file
wav-sound file
These are just some examples of file extensions. There are many file extensions each for different programs for example, a .gmk file would be a file opened with Game Maker. However, you would need Game Maker installed on your computer in order for the file to be used. Because as the extension determines that the .gmk file is to be opened with Game Maker, if you don't have Game Maker on your computer the file cant be accessed.
File Compression is the process of reducing the size of a file to save disk space. A common way of compressing data is adding it to a 'zipped' folder. The file extension for a zipped folder is known ad .zip and when the contents of the file are zipped, they can be uploaded onto the internet for other users to download (this is known as file sharing). A regular folder cannot be downloaded just by itself, it can when being downloaded as a torrent file but besides this, multiple items which are in a file to be downloaded off the internet are always in a compressed state such as a zip file or a RAR (a RAR file is one of the other compression file extensions. RAR and zip are the most common compressed folders.).
There are two different types of file compression. Lossless and lossy. Lossless file compression is for mainly text and image files. This is a conviniant way to save file space as you don't lose any data with Lossless compression. Lossy on the other hand, can lose data when files are being compressed.
Extraction is the process of uncompressing the compressed files. Its very easy, you often just right click and click on 'extract files' and all of the files are returned to their original uncompressed state. When a user downloads a zip or rar file, they often extract it before using any files contained within as there are limitations will compressed files, especially those of lossy compression.
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| WinRAR. A popular program used for extracting RAR,ZIP and other compressed files. |
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