What are computer files?

Computer files are generally used to store information which can be accessed and viewed by a computer program associated with the file type. You can imagine a file just like a paper with written text on it which is now considered an old style solution to store data.

Nowadays computer files are stored electronically in digital format consisting of binary digits, which are a combination of 0 and 1 representing integer values. A file can contain all data of a company’s customers or employees which is usually stored in special data base files.

Files are usually being organized in folders or directories. There can be personal files or different application or system files. Computer files have two parts: a name of the file and the extension or suffix. There can’t be two files with the same name under same directory thus the name of the file should be unique.

The size of a computer file is measured in bytes which tell how much space the actual file takes on the storage device. Computer files can be created, modified and deleted with the help of a file manager program.

Most common type of files: program files, text files, data files and directory files.