ZIP Full Form | Full Form of ZIP

Zip File

The zip file extension doesn't have a full form. It's an archive file format that supports lossless data compression (original data perfectly reconstructed from compressed data).
There's variety of data compression algorithms available like deflate, Huffman coding, arithmetic coding, Lempel-Ziv-Markov chain algorithm (LZMA), etc.
A zip file might be understood because the combination of multiple compressed files and folders, sometimes combined together to make an archive.
Phillip Walter Katz is that the co-creator of the zip file format and was initially released on February 14, 1989. The informal meaning of zip is “move at high speed”.

Characteristics of zip

Zip file format uses the file extensions .zip or .zip and therefore the mime media type application/zip.
Zip file format is used with any OS like windows , MAC and Linux systems.
Zip file supports password based authentication called Zipcrypto to avoid unauthenticated people reach.
There are various .zip tools available like WINZIP, WINRAR , 7-zip , etc. To make a zip file, or to unpack the contents of a zip file.

Data compression may be a way of encoding structured data to require up less disc space when stored on a computer-based system. Basically, it involves re-encoding information using fewer bits than the first representation.

By using zip file format one can compress the files and folders to a large extent and may save to 80% or more in hard disk space.
Transmission of zipped files over the web is far easier and drastically reduces the e-mail transmission time.
Zipping supports encryption of data, helpful when sending private data over the web.
The minimum size of a zip file is 22 bytes. Such an empty zip file contains only an end of central directory record (eocd).
Zip maintains privacy - zipping allows you to encrypt private data, helpful when sending such data over internet.
Zip improves file integrity.

Uncompression of files takes up memory and processor time to finish the task, running within the background. You’ll encounter out of memory error.
Sometimes there is also an opportunity that zip file get corrupted and extraction of files and folders cannot happen correctly.
In some situations including compressing video and audio files, the file you're compressing can't be made smaller, leading to a compressed file that's larger in size than the first file.
Damaged data can affect the whole zip file.
Unencryption can occur.