Data Interchange Format Files

Data Interchange Format (DIF) files represent data in rows and columns. DIF files contain character and numeric data (positive and negative decimal numbers).

DIF is used for data interchange between spreadsheet programs and other application programs.

The data transfer function supports only the following two data types within DIF files:
  • Character data: The data in a character cell (think of a cell as one field in one record) must be enclosed in double quotation marks if there is an embedded space in the string. However, if the string begins with a quotation mark, it must also end with a quotation mark.
  • Numeric data: The numeric data supported by the data transfer function consists of a decimal number that can contain a minus sign or a decimal point or both. The data transfer function also supports exponential numeric data.
Parent topic: Personal Computer File Types