root-format is a binary data format created in 1994.

ROOT provides a file format that is a machine-independent compressed binary format, including both the data and its description, and provides an open-source automated tool to generate the data description (or "dictionary") when saving data, and to generate C++ classes corresponding to this description when reading back the data.

• root-format website
• root-format Wikipedia page
• root-format first developed in Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire