| One of the ways of permanent storage of data is through files. A file is a collection of data stored on a secondary storage device, such as the Hard Disk. Every file has a name associated with it, such as CSITquestion.txt. The name comprises of two parts the base name (in our case ‘CSITquestion) and the extension (txt). |
| The portion before the period (.) is the base name whereas the one after it is the extension. A file name can also contain multiple periods – CSitquestion.com.txt. The most significant period is always the last one. So, in this case, the base name of the file would be CSITquestion.com and the extension txt. |
| The extension determines the type of the file. For example, a word document has an extension of doc while an excel file has an extension of xls. The base name is what we specify to identify that particular file. |
| Files are contained in folders or directories. A directory itself can contain other files and folders, thus forming a hierarchy. Files within a folder (directory) need to have unique names. Files with same base name but different extensions are allowed. So, the file My File.txt and My File.doc can co-exist in the same folder. |
| The full path of the file contains its complete address on a machine. For instance, if the file Notepad.exe is contained inside the Windows directory of your C drive, its path would be “C:\Windows\Notepad.exe”. Likewise, if it were to be contained inside the System32 directory which in turn is present in the Windows directory, the full path would be “C:\Windows\System32\Notepad.exe”. |
| Note: No two files on your computer can have the same full path. |