A binary file is a file that is stored in binary format, a format for representing data used in certain applications. Unlike a text file, such as an ASCII file, a binary file contains more than plain text. Binary files may contain additional digital or audio information, spreadsheet information, software, or word-processing text that has been formatted. Like an ASCII file, a binary file is comprised of symbols that represent ones and zeros.
A binary file is readable, and can be interpreted by a computer program or hardware processor. The format of the data must be known in advance by the program or processor in order to make use of the file. A binary file is intended for a machine, and cannot be read by a human. All executable programs, those which specify an action, are stored in binary files (and are given a file name extension of ".bin"), as are most data files comprised of numbers. In contrast, files intended to be read and interpreted by humans are often stored as text files, in a form, such as ASCII, which is human-readable. Storage in the binary format allows the file to be read and used directly by the computer, without adding another layer of human-computer interaction. This speeds up the execution of a task.
The increased ranges of information possible in a binary file, versus a text file, have made the binary file format the operating choice for spreadsheet applications. A spreadsheet binary file will contain all the information for the document--data, formulas, length of data, size and location of document windows, and pictorial/graphic information.
The binary file format is used to transmit digital, audio or software information, and formatted text files over the Internet. If the file is unformatted text, the ASCII, or text option is suitable. In terms of transmitting files from one place to another, a binary file is transmitted without perusal or modification. The transmitting program passes along blocks of the binary data, the meaning of which is unknown to any network device.
On modern operating systems, the boundary between binary and text files may be blurred. A text file simply may be a binary file that happens to contain only printable characters. Some older systems, however, do distinguish between binary and text files, and have separate programs that handle the files in different ways.
Aside from executable files, binary files may also be used to store data that is generated by a program--for example, the numerical data generated by a piece of equipment that is recording the progress of an experiment. This is a more efficient use of time and computing power, because the data will already be in a form that allows its further analysis. This efficiency requires special purpose programs capable of manipulating the files, however, and most general-purpose programs operate on text files. Also, problems may occur with sharing binary numerical data between different processors.
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