FILES

In the same way that you can keep information grouped together in manila folders, MS-DOS organizes data into files. While you may store these folders in a cabinet, your computer stores these files on disks. Separating information into files allows you to work with that information more efficiently.

File Types

There are two basic file types:

Program files

Data files

Program files are files that perform a task. They manipulate the computer and data files in order to achieve a result. MS-DOS is a collection of program files, as are the control programs found in application software.

Data files are files that contain the information (data) used by program files. A file containing a list of names and addresses would be a data file.

The two types of files are closely related. Program files usually create data files. These may be the documents created by a word processor, the numerical array created by a spreadsheet, or some other collection of information.

A data file containing a written report can’t do anything by itself. On the other hand, a word processor is useless without documents to work on.

4-20 Using MS-DOS With Your Computer