Most of .dat files open up with simple text editors like notepad. Others that when opened with simple text editors show binary output, means they are using a character set ( how text has been encoded ) which is not understandable by your text editor. If your text editor gives options to use different character set or encoding for opening files then select it from there before opening the file.
Since you are on MAC i can`t say much since i never used it. But u can use Libreofficelink for mac
and use Calc to openup these files which will automatically detect the encoding for you, or provide you with many options. Mostly these .dat files are deformed .csv files.
Calc is sort of (open-sourced) Excel. contained in LibreOffice suite.
Others that when opened with simple text editors show binary output,
means they are using a character set ( how text has been encoded ) which is not
understandable by your text editor. If your text editor gives options to use different
character set or encoding for opening files then select it from there
before opening the file.
Since you are on MAC i can`t say much since i never used it. But u can use Libreoffice link for mac
and use Calc to openup these files which will automatically detect the encoding for you, or provide
you with many options. Mostly these .dat files are deformed .csv files.
Calc is sort of (open-sourced) Excel. contained in LibreOffice suite.
Thanks
Regards