computer science, computing - the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers) computable processes and structures

data file, file - a set of related records (either written or electronic) kept together

backup file - (computer science) a computer file dedicated to storing and updating computer backups

binary file - (computer science) a computer file containing machine-readable information that must be read by an application; characters use all 8 bits of each byte

main file, master file - (computer science) a computer file that is used as the authority in a given job and that is relatively permanent

disk file - (computer science) a computer file stored on a magnetic disk and identified by a unique label

detail file, transaction file - (computer science) a computer file containing relatively transient data about a particular data processing task

input data, input file - (computer science) a computer file that contains data that serve as input to a device or program

output file - (computer science) a computer file that contains data that are the output of a device or program

read-only file - (computer science) a file that you can read but cannot change

text file, document - (computer science) a computer file that contains text (and possibly formatting instructions) using 7-bit ASCII characters