Understanding data formats

Let's imagine there are two different systems on a network, such as a computer and a router. The computer wants to share data with the router but since these are two different devices altogether, the router may not understand or be able to interpret the message it receives from the computer. To solve this issue, data formats are used to ensure the data that is being exchanged between the systems is presented in a format that is easily understood by another system. Think of a data format as two people who both speak different languages using a common language such as English so that the information that's being exchanged can be easily understood by both.

Data formats go a step further to ensure computers, network devices, and applications are all able to understand data that is being shared between them. As an example, let's take a look at a simple web page written in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), as shown in the following screenshot...