| In a computer, a file format is the layout of a file in
terms of how the data within the file is organized. A program that uses
the data in a file must be able to recognize and possibly access data within
the file. For example, the program that we call a Web browser is able to
process and display a file in the HTML file format so that it appears as
a Web page, but it cannot display a file in a format designed for Microsoft's
Excel program. A particular file format is often indicated as part of a
file's name by a file name extension (suffix). Conventionally, the extension
is separated by a period from the name and contains three or four letters
that identify the format. A program that uses or recognizes a particular
file format may or may not care whether the file has the appropriate extension
name since it can actually examine the bits in the file to see whether the
format (layout) is one it recognizes.
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