what are .dat files, I have hundreds on my PC?

Answer 1

Explanation here. Bottom line, "The problem is that so many different programs use ".dat" that it really doesn't tell you anything about the file, what it contains, or what program it belongs to. There is no standard format, there is no standard way to interpret the contents. ".dat" is only a name and nothing more.

So I'll be clear: there is no way to know how to open a .dat file unless you know what program created it. Period."

http://ask-leo.com/whats_a_dat_file.html

Answer 2

The are data files. Programs running on the computer sometimes need to access piles of data to know how something is presented. For example, if there is a picture or maybe a spreadsheet with colored areas of cells with different sizes this specific information is stored in a "dat" file. What ever color or size something does not matter to the actual program running and doing the operations. Since different spreadsheets will have different sizes and colors there would be a different dat file for each one.

Answer 3

Dat files are data files. It's just a generic way of indicating a data file, because Windows requires files to have an extension. No, you cannot tell what data is inside. It's arbitrary, depending on what program uses it. If I coded up a random piece of software, my dat files could be ascii data, or random binary data, or whatever. It's just something.

No, BenC, dat files usually are not CSVs and they are probably not in ASCII. I would never open an unknown dat file in Notepad or Word, because if it doesn't happen to be ASCII (which it probably isn't), I would corrupt the file in the binary->ascii conversion. I would first open it up in a hex editor, and if I can confirm it to be a generic text file, I would open it up in a proper text editor like vim or something.

If it were a CSV file, there's a good chance it would use the extension .csv.

Answer 4

A note about csanon's comments: I'd be a little less worried about corrupting a non-text file by opening it in Notepad or another text editor. If you make sure you do NOT save it when you exit the editor it should be safe.

Answer 5

Well, they're definitely not files which can be executed. Some application must have created those data files. Which folder are they in? If they're in something like \Windows folder, then they could belong to any application.