What Files Are

Files are a collection of data onto a permanent storage structure. They are stored on a permanent storage media such as a computer hard drive, CD ROM drive, floppy disk drive or sometimes even a tape drive. Files take a certain amount of room to store. For example if you have two text files and one file has one sentence in it while the other file has 200 sentences in it, the file with 200 sentences will use more room on the storage media.

File Functions

Different files have different purposes. Files are used to do one or more of the following functions:

• Provide machine executable code which is used to run application programs and the operating system.
• Store application program or operating system configuration information.
• Store data used by the user such as Microsoft Word document files.

Therefore there are three types of information that files contain:

• Executable code.
• System or program configuration information.
• User data.

These files are read by an application program or the operating system.