First released in 1989, the format is still widely used and is built into Microsoft Windows releases since 1998.

zip file extension is the most well known file type related to compressed and archived files. RAR, along with several other lossless file compression formats, is based on Huffman encoding. This is particularly useful when an archive needs to be transferred to removable media such as a memory card or CD/DVD. This sometimes leads to the file extension being renamed from. The format permits spanning across multiple RAR files. The RAR format allows for an extremely large potential file size, with 20 Exabyte's being the upper limit. The RAR format established itself as a rival to the ZIP file format due to its superior compression ratios. The RAR format also provides features such as repair, which will attempt to restore part or all of the file when physical damage has occurred.

The compression technique used to create RAR files is proprietary and has been licensed to other paid and freeware compression file applications. Named after its Russian creator, the RAR format, standing for Roshal Archive, is a compressed file type.

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