What is an MDF file?

Just to make this absolutely clear for all:

A .MDF file is “typically” a SQL Server data file however it is important to note that it does NOT have to be.

This is because .MDF is nothing more than a recommended/preferred notation but the extension itself does not actually dictate the file type.

To illustrate this, if someone wanted to create their primary data file with an extension of .gbn they could go ahead and do so without issue.

To qualify the preferred naming conventions:

• .mdf - Primary database data file.
• .ndf - Other database data files i.e. non Primary.
• .ldf - Log data file.

SQL Server databases use two files - an MDF file, known as the primary database file, which contains the schema and data, and a LDF file, which contains the logs. See wikipedia. A database may also use secondary database file, which normally uses a .ndf extension.

As John S. indicates, these file extensions are purely convention - you can use whatever you want, although I can't think of a good reason to do that.

More info on MSDN here and in Beginning SQL Server 2005 Administation (Google Books) here.