Search code examples
file-extension

why file extenssions are created?


my friends I have a question about why file extensions are created? I found a quote on Wikipedia

"They are commonly used to imply information about the way data might be stored in the file"

what does it mean?


Solution

  • File extension is an identifier which tell the operating system what kind of data and file type they are working with and what associated program opens the file.

    if u have an .apk extension file, system can easily recognize it as an application file. If it is an mp4, means it's some kind of multimedia file and can be operated with multimedia applications.

    They are commonly used to imply information about the way data might be stored in the file. A normal text editor uses .txt as extension when an html uses extension .html These two files stores data differently.