Opening a .dat and a .lst file

[compressor stall]

I have delved into the workings of a couple of programs that run, and have got the .dat file. I want to get the info in this file, but it is too big for notebook to open, and word pad and word just show jibberish with the odd number correct.

What should I use to open it/and or how to convert it to something that my PC (win98) will recognise?

The same goes for a .lst file.

Thanks in advance.

CS

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Many applications create files with extension ".dat" (and others, possibly including your ".lst") in which they store private data. Sometimes this is in text format so that you can read it; sometimes it is in a private binary format.

To understand a binary format ".dat" file you will need

(1) a binary file editor, and:
(2) either (a) a specification of the file format or (b) some experience at reverse engineering binary file formats (plus some amount of luck).

If you know what application created the file you can usually find that someone has already done the reverse engineering for you and posted a specification of the file format somewhere on the web.

[What_does_this_button_do?]

.dat is usually associated with a data file relating to a program. If you want you can copy the file as a .doc file and if you have Word loaded it will convert it into a reasonable document if it can. Same for .lst