<
file format> Any
file format for
digital data that does
not consist of a sequence of printable
characters (
text).
The term is often used for executable
machine code.
All digital data, including characters, is actually
binary
data (unless it uses some (rare) system with more than two
discrete levels) but the distinction between
binary and text
is well established. On modern
operating systems a text
file is simply a
binary file that happens to contain only
printable characters, but some older systems distinguish the
two
file types, requiring programs to handle them differently.
A common class of
binary files is programs in {machine
language} ("
executable files") ready to load into memory and
execute.
Binary files may also be used to store data output
by a program, and intended to be read by that or another
program but not by humans.
Binary files are more efficient
for this purpose because the data (e.g. numerical data) does
not need to be converted between the
binary form used by the
CPU and a printable (ASCII) representation. The
disadvantage is that it is usually necessary to write special
purpose programs to manipulate such
files since most general
purpose utilities operate on text
files. There is also a
problem sharing
binary numerical data between processors with
different
endianness.
Some communications
protocols handle only text
files,
e.g. most
electronic mail systems before
MIME became
widespread in about 1995. The
FTP utility must be put into
"
binary" mode in order to copy a
binary file since in its
default "ascii" mode translates between the different
newline characters used on the sending and receiving
computers.
Confusingly, some
word processor files, and
rich text
files, are actually
binary files because they contain
non-printable characters and require special programs to view,
edit and print them.
(2005-02-21)