Text File

File Extension: .txt, .csv, .xml

Text Files commonly contain Plain Text, but they are not limited to such. A text file may store other formats, including binary data.

Files

Some file extension are shared between different formats.

=== Plain Text ===

• Extensions: .txt

To put it plainly, this is simply text in a file. These files can be viewed and edited with Text Editors, including Microsoft Windows Notepad. A Plain Text file usually has the MIME type "text/plain" with additional information indicating an encoding.

=== Delimiter Separated Values ===

• Extensions: .txt, .csv

Files using the Delimiter Separated Value (DSV) format are used to store tabular data such as numbers and text. A DSV file is used to store and exchange data among many applications. Most database and spreadsheet programs are able to read or save data in a delimited format.

The delimiter separated file format is structured similairly to a spreadsheet. The DSV column headers are usually included as the first line, and each subsequent line is a row of data. Each row is separated by a newline (↵ Enter). There are many widespread specifications and conventions for DSV such as Comma-Separated Values (CSV), and Tab-Separated Values (TSV). Any character may be used to separate the values, but the most common delimiters are the comma, tab, and colon.

=== Extensible Markup Language ===

• Extensions: .xml

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. XML has come into common use for the interchange of data between applications and over the Internet.

Tooling

• Text Editors
• Microsoft Windows Notepad on Wikipedia
• There are other software projects that provided tooling for text files.

See Also

• Game File Reference
• Delimiter-Separated Values (DSV) on Wikipedia
• Extensible Markup Language (XML) on Wikipedia