COMPRESSED FILES

There is always this hassle when downloading files online; you sometimes come across files with .zip or .rar or .7z extension.

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If you are not familiar with these extensions or maybe you need more insight, continue reading and you will get answers to your questions.

WHAT ARE COMPRESSED FILES?

These are files that are enclosed within an archive for easy transfer between various platforms and use on different devices capable of containing one or more files or folder or directory within itself. Files are normally compressed into various containers e.g .zip, .rar or .7z among others.

The .zip, .rar and .7z extensions on a file means the file is a collection of folders, Images, videos, documents, apps, software, or files compressed to fit one container. This simply means, any file with a .zip, .rar or .7z extension is a box, a package, a gift, with hidden files or documents within. Files with these extensions are sometimes referred to as ‘ZIPPED’ or ‘COMPRESSED’.

WHY ARE FILES COMPRESSED?

There are a lot of reasons why people compress their files. Below is a comprehensive list gotten from the web and also from personal experience giving reasons to why files are compressed.

1. To Reduce The Size Of Files: 

When files are compressed into one Zip, Rar or 7z file their sizes are also compressed and reduced. Let’s say you have large file(s) which you wish to send to someone but the size is just too big, in situations like this, you could just download any app or software (continue reading to find some examples of software and apps used to compress files) that compresses files, select the files and use the app or software to compress them; after compression, the size of the file(s) will be reduced. I remember downloading a compressed file of 200mb, after extraction, every file and folder inside amounted to 800mb in size.

2. To Aid In Transfer Of Multiple Files: 

Have you ever tried transferring from one device to another, a folder of about one thousand files? If you have not, lucky you because it takes more time to transfer or delete a folder with one thousand files amounting to only 20mb in size than it does when transferring one file of 300mb; this is because with multitudes of files to send, the device would have to focus on working on one file at a time before getting to the last. To avoid suffering same fate as mine, compressing all those files to one .zip, .rar or.7z is the best course of action as it will reduce transfer speed by a lot.

3. To Increase Transfer Or Download Speed: 

With multiple files merged into one and size of files reduced, you are rest assured that the time taking to transfer or download a file will be reduced drastically and the hassle of waiting hours for files to be downloaded or transferred will be curbed.

IN WHAT FORMAT ARE COMPRESSED FILES SAVED?

You might have noticed that I tend to mention .zip, .rar and .7z a lot, well these are some of the formats in which compressed files are saved amongst many other. Let’s see how many I can list out.

Format	File Type
.zip	Zipped File
.rar	WinRAR Compressed Archive
.7z	7-Zip Compressed file
.tar	Consolidated Unix File Archive
.gz	Gnu Zipped File
.cab	Windows Cabinet File
.apk	Android Package Kit

These are just a few of the common compressed file formats

There are still a lot of apps and software dedicated to extracting and compressing files which we will learn about in subsequent articles. Ciao!