Binary files What are they and what types of encrypted computer documents are there?

Surely, at some time you have heard about the binary filesbut, due to ignorance, you did not know what they were referring to, maybe, for example, that they are not for you but for your computer; Right!. Well, a binary file is one that contains information encoded in binary language (the content is a sequence of bytes that are grouped eight by eight), what we know as the famous zeros and ones in computing.

It stores spreadsheets, photographs, audio files, text documents and even the executables of other programs. Used to be processed by a computer, so that it can understand it perfectly. In fact, they are not a type of files that are prepared to be understood by a humansince if we happen to open them with a Notepad, for example, we will only see incomprehensible symbols.

This type of file is used by computers that understand 1 as on and 0 as off. The set is what shapes the elements that format information. For example: sound, images, other contained files. In fact, some have a header made up of a series of metadata that indicates the type of information that the file itself contains. If it does not have a header, we are dealing with a flat binary file.

What are binary files and what are they really for?

Binary files are used to save any type of information so that it is kept in memory on a machine.; that is, at 1 and 0. Each of these values ​​is assigned a voltage and depending on the same Transactions with computerswho are the ones who understand and manipulate the information, interpret it and give it an understandable form for the user.

For this reason, binary files they are normal files in appearance (by default, the system hides them so that the user does not manipulate them, but you can, if you want, have them in view without problem, like any other), which, simply, the system can understand.

In fact, there are some binaries that are executable files that are used to tell the system itself that it has to do some type of work. There are also programs that implicitly carry a special compilation for convert ascii text to binary code, so that the programmer can write the commands he intends to give in readable language and the program transforms it into binary so that the system itself can understand it correctly. Later, that file will be reinterpreted again so that another human understands it; curious, right?

In summary, a binary file is used to give orders to the central system through the well-known machine language so that both the operating system like the microprocessor know what to do. are files very compact and efficient, which gives them a greater range over text files and it is precisely for this reason that they are indicated for communicating with equipment and systems. You can see all file types here.

They are usually executable files that ask the system to perform a specific job. Its most common extension is usually .bin. Different types of operations can be performed on binary files, such as:

• Opening. Remember that without trying to open this type of file with a text editor, each group of eight bits would be translated as a meaningless character. Hence the message would be unreadable. In fact, whatever program is made, each one would make incorrect use of each byte of the message. On the contrary, if it is treated as an executable, the computer will try to interpret it based on the instructions that carries the machine language itself.
• Creation. It’s very important define the route where the file will be created. Also, when this one starts to edit will have an associated file with the same name and a .dat extension. If a binary file is not created, you should check that there is no other with the same name or that the hard disk is not full.
• Closing. The fclose function indicates the closing of the binary file and allows it to be used by another program. It does not indicate that the program with extension .dat created at startup should be deleted.
• Writing. To write a file, you must follow some order tips to have a good binary. Furthermore, it is important to use the fwrite function to which we will pass parameters to delimit his work even more.
• Reading. fread is a function to read the binary file that understands the intermediate program and sends it in machine language to the processor to follow orders.
• Route. Procedure followed by the machine when it wants to work with a binary file. It is used to correctly execute the instructions of the program
• Send binary files. In the event that this is the operation that you want to carry out, you must indicate that files of this type are reconverted to a special encoding (based on 64) which increases the file size a bit (about 30%). Also, also requires decoding at the receiver to get the correct binary file again.

A concrete example of what binary files are can be found in compiled computer programs.

Types of binary file extensions and their associated programs to open them

Binary files often have formats that do not follow any apparent standard. Moreover, each of these files can only be opened by the system or application for which it was created. The only thing that can be done to try to find out some type of information from this type of file is to open it with a notepad and try to investigate the unformatted information, which is little and, honestly, if you are not a computer scientist, you are not going to to understand.

Some of the most common binary file extensions or, by contrast, special and specific ones, are the following: