Types of Files

Last updated at July 13, 2026 by Teachoo

Text File

A text file is a file that contains data in the form of characters .
Each character is stored as an ASCII code or a Unicode code in the file. So, while opening a text file, the text editor translates each ASCII value and shows us the equivalent character that is readable by the human being.
A text file can be created and edited using a text editor, such as Notepad or WordPad .
A text file can have different extensions, such as “.txt”, “.csv”, “.py”, etc., depending on the format or content of the file.
Each line of a text file is terminated by a special character, called the End of Line (EOL).
Contents in a text file are usually separated by whitespace, but comma (,) and tab (\t) are also commonly used to separate values in a text file.

A binary file is a file that contains data in the form of bytes. Each byte is stored as a sequence of 8 bits (0s and 1s) in the file.
A binary file can store any type of data, such as images, audio, video, executable code, etc.
A binary file cannot be created or edited using a text editor, but requires a specific program or application that can understand its format.
A binary file can have different extensions, such as “.bmp”, “.mp3”, “.exe” , etc., depending on the format or content of the file.

CSV stands for Comma Separated Values.
A CSV file is a plain text file that stores data in the form of a table , where each row is a record and each column is a field.
The data entries in each row are separated by commas , hence the name of the format.
CSV files are often used to store and exchange data between different applications that can handle tabular data, such as spreadsheets, databases, contact managers, etc.
A CSV file can be opened and edited using a text editor or a spreadsheet program, such as Excel or Google Sheets.
The extension of CSV files is usually “.csv” . However, some programs or systems may use different extensions for CSV files, such as “.txt”, “.tsv”, “.dat”, etc.