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

ACCDB file extension

Access 2007 Database File

Database Files

AIF file extension

Audio Interchange File Format

Audio Files

APK file extension

Android Package File

Executable Files

ASF file extension

Advanced Systems Format File

Video Files

CBR file extension

Comic Book RAR Archive

Compressed Files

CRDOWNLOAD file extension

Chrome Partially Downloaded File

Misc Files

DMP file extension

Windows Memory Dump

System Files

GPX file extension

GPS Exchange File

GIS Files

HTML file extension

Hypertext Markup Language File

Web Files

MDF file extension

Media Disc Image File

Disk Image Files

PIF file extension

Program Information File

Executable Files

PSD file extension

Adobe Photoshop Document

Raster Image Files

SQL file extension

Structured Query Language Data File

Database Files

SVG file extension

Scalable Vector Graphics File

Vector Image Files

3G2 file extension

3GPP2 Multimedia File

Video Files