File extensions – definition and basic information


File extensions are the integral parts of the files that are on each computer. Often, when working on a computer, we encounter a wide range of files, such as docx, ppt, part, mp3 or rmvb. We realize that they are there – but we often do not know what they are for on our computer.

File extension, also known as the filename extension is a suffix added to the name of a computer file, usually consisting of a number of characters placed after the last dot in the filename, which gives us information about its coding. In other words a file extension is a file format. It allows the operating system (e.g. Windows) to recognize what program it should try to open the file.

In the table below you will find a random selection of popular file extensions.


File extension The full name of the file Category

BAT file extension

DOS Batch File

Executable Files

DEB file extension

Debian Software Package

Compressed Files

DRV file extension

Device Driver

System Files

EPS file extension

Encapsulated PostScript File

Vector Image Files

GIF file extension

Graphical Interchange Format File

Raster Image Files

IFF file extension

Interchange File Format

Audio Files

JPG file extension

JPEG Image

Raster Image Files

PY file extension

Python Script

Developer Files

RAR file extension

WinRAR Compressed Archive

Compressed Files

RTF file extension

Rich Text Format File

Text Files

SRT file extension

SubRip Subtitle File

Video Files

TARGZ file extension

Compressed Tarball File

Compressed Files

TIFF file extension

Tagged Image File Format

Raster Image Files

WPS file extension

Microsoft Works Word Processor Document

Text Files

XHTML file extension

Extensible Hypertext Markup Language File

Web Files