file type

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
file type

   <file format> The kind of data stored in a file.  Most modern
   {operating systems} use the {filename extension} to determine
   the file type though some store this information elsewhere in
   the {file system}.  The file type is used to choose an
   appropriate icon to represent the file in a {GUI} and the
   correct {application} with which to view, edit, run, or print
   the file.

   Different operating systems support different sets of file
   types though most agree on a large common set and allow
   arbitrary new types to be defined.

   See also {MIME}.

   FileInfo.net - The File Extensions Resource
   (http://fileinfo.net)

   (2006-07-11)