Recording format
![A cylinder, head, and sector of a hard drive. The sectors are a recording container format. The digital data on the disks may be both secondary container file formats and raw digital data content formats such as digital audio or ASCII encoded text.](/Images/godic/202502/06/Cylinder_Head_Sector.svg0404.png")
![A map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically). The lines are a grid, a method for dividing and containing recorded cartographical data. The land masses and oceans are cartographical data in a raw content (pictorial graphical) format. The text is in an alphanumerical symbolic raw content format.](/Images/godic/202502/06/WorldMapLongLat-eq-circles-tropics-non0405.png")
A recording format is a format for encoding data for storage on a storage medium. The format can be container information such as sectors on a disk, or user/audience information (content) such as analog stereo audio. Multiple levels of encoding may be achieved in one format. For example, a text encoded page may contain HTML and XML encoding, combined in a plain text file format, using either EBCDIC or ASCII character encoding, on a UDF digitally formatted disk.