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

CFM file extension

ColdFusion Markup File

Web Files

CRDOWNLOAD file extension

Chrome Partially Downloaded File

Misc Files

DBF file extension

Database File

Database Files

DEM file extension

Video Game Demo File

Game Files

GPX file extension

GPS Exchange File

GIS Files

M file extension

Objective-C Implementation File

Developer Files

M4A file extension

MPEG-4 Audio File

Audio Files

OTF file extension

OpenType Font

Font Files

PY file extension

Python Script

Developer Files

ROM file extension

N64 Game ROM File

Game Files

RTF file extension

Rich Text Format File

Text Files

SQL file extension

Structured Query Language Data File

Database Files

TEX file extension

LaTeX Source Document

Text Files

WSF file extension

Windows Script File

Executable Files

3GP file extension

3GPP Multimedia File

Video Files