In general, there are two types of files: Text files and Binary files.

Text Files:

• Text files are files that contain plain text characters and are typically human-readable.

• They are composed of characters from the character set, such as letters, numbers, punctuation, and special symbols.

• Text files can be created and edited using simple text editors like Notepad in Windows or TextEdit in macOS. Examples of text files include .txt, .csv (comma-separated values), .html (Hypertext Markup Language), .py (Python script), etc. In text files, the data is stored in a human-readable format, making it easy for users to understand and modify the content.

Binary Files:

• Binary files are files that contain data in a non-human-readable format, represented as a sequence of bytes.
• These files can store any type of data, such as images, audio, video, executable programs, and more.
• Binary files are created and manipulated by computer programs, not directly by users. Examples of binary files include .jpg (JPEG image), .mp3 (MP3 audio), .exe (executable program), .dat (data file), etc. Binary files are used when data needs to be stored and read in its raw format, without any human-readable representation.

The main difference between text files and binary files lies in how the data is represented and stored:

• Text Files: Text files store data as human-readable characters, typically using ASCII or Unicode encoding. Each character is represented by a specific byte value, and line breaks are used to separate different lines of text. Text files are used for storing text-based information, configuration files, source code, and other human-readable data.

• Binary Files: Binary files store data as a sequence of bytes, representing the raw data without any specific character encoding. Binary files are used to store non-textual data, such as images, audio, video, and program executable files. Since binary files are not human-readable, specific applications or programs are required to interpret and process the data within these files.

In summary, the key difference between text files and binary files is the way they represent and store data: text files use human-readable characters, while binary files use raw bytes to represent data.