FreeForm ND supports binary, ASCII, and dBASE file types. Binary data are stored in a fixed amount of space with a fixed range of values. This is a very efficient way to store data, but the files are machine-readable rather than human-readable. Binary numbers can be integers or floating point numbers.
Numbers and character strings are stored as text strings in ASCII. The amount of space used to store a string is variable, with each character occupying one byte.
The dBASE file type, used by the dBASE product, is ASCII text without end-of-line markers.