Surely, on some occasion you have heard about the binary filesbut, due to ignorance, you did not know what they were referring to, perhaps, 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, audios, 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 it occurs to us 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 gives shape to 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 indicating the type of information contained in the file itself. If it does not have a header, we are dealing with a flat binary file.
What are binaries and what are they really for?
Binary files are used to store any type of information so that it is kept in memory on a machine; that is, at 1 and 0. A voltage is assigned to each of these values and as a function of the same transactions are carried out 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 visible without any problem, like any other), which the system can simply understand.
In fact, there are some binaries that are executable files that serve to tell the system itself that it has to do some kind of work. There are also programs that imply a special compilation for convert text to binary code, so that the programmer can write in a readable language the orders he intends to give and the program transforms it into binary so that the system itself can understand it correctly. Later, that file will be reinterpreted for another human to understand; 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 it and 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 the ones indicated to communicate with equipment and systems. You can see here.
They are usually executable files that ask the system to do a specific job. Its most common extension is usually . Different types of operations can be performed on binary files, such as:
- Opening. It must be remembered that if we try to open this type of file with a text editor, each group of eight bits would be translated as a character without any kind of meaning. Hence the message would be unreadable. In fact, whatever program is used, 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 according to the instructions that carries the machine language itself.
- Creation. It’s very important define the route where the file will be created. Also, when it starts editing 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 not another with the same name or that the hard disk is not full.
- Closing. The fclose function indicates the closure of the binary file and allows it to be used by another program. It does not indicate that the program with the .dat extension created at startup should be deleted.
- Writing. To write a file, you must follow some order tips to have a good binary. Also, 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 that the machine follows when it wants to work on 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 64) which increases the file size a bit (by about 30%). Also, also requires decoding at the receiver to get back the correct binary file.
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 don’t follow any apparent standard. Furthermore, 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 these types of files is to open them 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, on the contrary, special and specific ones, are the following:
Extension Features Program
264
- High compression video codec
- Contains RAW video data
- They can be opened directly in a camera device or with the tools provided with the device
aab
- Android app bundle
- Developers use these types of files to upload applications to Google Play using dynamic loading.
- Reduce installation sizes on user devices
- Google Bundletool
- Google Android Studio
akm
- Input mechanism that allows using an English keyboard to send messages in Indian languages
- Aksharamala Keymap
- Microsoft Operation Manager
aot
- Binary object template file for an application, in particular, named snAppShot from Novell
- You can only work with this type of files in editing mode with a specific program>
- Novell snAppShot Application Binary Object Template File>
baml
- This is a compiled XAML file
- It is inserted as a resource in a .NET assembler
- It is used to create workflows or wpf-type visual trees
bny
- It is used in many programs distributed by the Windows platform.
- They are classified as data files
- Binary II Format
- Shrinklt
save
- video display driver
- It is used to copy RAM into a binary file.
- They were mainly used when the IBM pCs were introduced.
- Quickbasic BLOAD/BSAVE Format
dcu
- This is a compiled unit file that has the same name as a source code file.
- File type created for Delphi
dpl
- Dynamic Link Library or DLL containing components that can be shared across multiple projects
- File type created for Delphi
fb1
- These are the FAWAVE Binary files
- It belongs to the category of data files
- It is used for programs distributed for Windows
grib
- It is used in Grid Analysis programs and Visualization Systems
- It was developed by the World Meteorological Organization
- Used to rapidly transmit weather information between forecast computers
- They are made up of very useful meteorological data at the individual level
- They are extremely compact files, which only contain pure information
- In addition, they are very precise files
- WMO CBS FM 92-VIII Ext. Gridded
mf4
- ASAM Measurement Data File Type
- Used by the automotive industry to store measurement data from sensors of a less than engine unit (ECU)
- It also contains the metadata necessary to interpret the raw measurement data.
- Version 4.0 measurement data
net
- Software used to analyze uncertainty in businesses such as engineering, ecology and medicine through Bayesian networks
- This format is used to reduce the file size and the speed of access to them.
goose
- This is an attachment saved with custom Visual Basic control files
- It has descriptions of objects, their properties and methods>
- They also serve as extended type libraries and cache for OCX files.
- Visual Basic Control Typelib
gdp
- It consists of a series of blocks where each of them contains one or more attributes.
- The definition of each attribute has a name, data type, dimension range and a description.
- Special file associated with Apple Binary 2 Library Utility
rock
- Special file associated with Rockbox
- This is an open source replacement firmware focused on mp3 players.
sbn
- This is a spatial index for read and write files
- ArcView spatial index for read-write shapefiles
srmm
- Open source binaries generated by a Linux system at the machine level
uhh
- Similar to ZIP files
- They are used to treat compressed files
x3db
- Extensible 3D graphics
Facebook Comments
Disqus