Standard File Formats

Question 1

CSV [Comma Separated Values]

Answer 1

Delimited text format. The delimiter used to separate the values being a comma.

Question 2

TSV [Tab Separated Values]

Answer 2

Delimited text format in which the values are separated by a tab. This is used when a CSV is not an option due to literal commas being present in the text and thus can’t be used as delimiters.

Question 3

Microsoft Excel Open XML Spreadsheet or .XLSX

Answer 3

This is a MS Excel Open XML file format that falls under the spreadsheet file format. It cannot save malicious code.

Question 4

.XML [Extensible Markup Language]

Answer 4

This is a markup language with set rules for encoding data. It’s readable by both humans and machines. It’s programming language independent, doesn’t use predefined tags like HTML and makes data sharing between various systems simpler.

Question 5

PDF [Portable Document Format]

Answer 5

This is a file format developed by Adobe to present documents independent of application, software, hardware or operating system. It can be viewed the same way on any device. It can also be read in any programming language.

Question 6

JavaScript Object Notation or JSON

Answer 6

This is a text based open standard designed for transmitting structured data over the web. It’s a language-independent data format which can be read in any programming language.