need help opening dat files

[Sebastian Oliver]

when try to edit dat files with notepad++ all i get is this thanks for the help in advance

SQAR｣ tAZ$ﾂﾃVﾐs｣/SC4DABDAP ﾂ・5DA|ﾑO・I-Sｨｳ､d€Sﾐ碯5・CAl^'eﾗ!SvﾛFA!ﾒﾉｳ]讒w\AﾈO・ﾀ5S|y5・&5ﾝ・A,
&e・vﾐｬ\・,1^・>cAebﾘFｪｪ~ﾐh・>・2・・S・ｱ､ｰ珖ﾐ・_#H・ﾀ&eｿｻSS0ﾚFetkﾐ・5・A3O・VkS ｲ､4xﾐIW4ｴ・A3&e\ｰvS・ﾚFB跼3A・O・NwS
ﾀ4・ｹ・[｣4-ﾞA茴’e
ﾐdｸ]d・ Z]跫・A@ ﾛFmRﾐ
x7W7)ﾑsSE・､*ﾁ4ﾐVﾌ_ｹ｡澗%ezﾝHS鞁Fｴ2ﾐ昉5・AmｭO・)JS6ｻｱ､ｩｺ=ﾐ・)ｷ)A[ﾏ’e
DYSﾈ釡FCrｷF_跋・A憬M・澣SＢ7ﾘ7ﾓ|ﾁA;・eIｴﾝﾐｻﾚ)Na_訶7ﾉAR2ﾙF莅ﾛﾐ
m5､MW5ｻ譽Sｩｦｱ､ｵﾙﾐｺ棒3仡・et・S糊ﾛFｮ柁ﾐﾎﾌ4ANﾔN・5ｿSFPｲ､ﾟﾂﾐ4硝ﾐA
・eｸS勞ﾛFｽｨW’蘊踴瞠A朧・垓S碁5／ﾖ・ｱﾚA&eｲw\ガfoﾑ_・・A&ほF｣f4・heM4N鬼ﾛｲ､琿ﾈ!\s,jﾊ%e瞹Т€籐F;ｴﾐ~.4 褜6N・・Vｰ､$s・ｭ6､韶Aｵl'eﾛｫ€S&DﾛF鎚n]3_贊顴⑨M㊨oヾJ|5co5oA艢&eK賻d禄ﾘZr象^賈ﾆ畏FIO菻T・・q7r 欖8=ｲ､楼簟+ \QvLｱ%e兊儡ﾟ叨F7耙ｶｪ526ｲO㈲ｽ儡ｩ.ｳ､・隯烋5c=Aｨ;$es鱒S;ﾘF:w|ﾜｳ]・ﾖ②ﾈO③鏨K・・)・1!窟=ｪ'eｱn斷ｽｲ]">cｽ]觴L輸*飼Fﾛrσｶ4ｸ・4lg続､ﾗﾐt｡_D&
・erﾛﾈS槧ﾘFｨﾐﾁX4#｢AA@N・ｰﾊSｴ豌､ｾﾐｵ6t皰A・eZvﾆS・ﾙF)(ﾃﾌ]詢ｮAｷO・GﾆS孔7ｹ(ﾗ&7・ｯAﾗ・e玄ﾐW・・.Nｼ]譟LｪA・Fｭｸﾐo・・・5・JｵﾜS]ﾜｱ､ｵｿ｢ﾐN・&
7・eｿ5ﾚS↑ﾙFe劬ﾐｷ&4・教A7>N⑲ﾔﾛS狃ｱ､愷｡ﾐｩ・z+ｽA・%e・ﾒS"ﾙFｦBﾂ
ﾗ]譫C@ﾛｬO・&Rﾃ=4xﾕ竸4ｶ畚@陲’eﾐ・ﾑhｺ]C聢IW\觜､[@ ﾚFﾘ｣vﾑ髜4 ・ｦ#4

[PeterJones]

What were you expecting to see in a text editor when opening this file? .dat files are generally data, specific to whatever application generated them. Often, they are binary – and it obviously looks binary based on your paste.

If you want to be able to edit some underlying textual data, you will have to determine what application created the .dat file, and find out whether there is a converter from that format to plaintext (it might be a converter, or an unzip-like utility, or a decompiler, or…). Once you have it in a text format, it will be easy to edit it with Notepad++. Once edited, you can use the same (or complementary) converter to get it back to the original format.

Notepad++ isn’t some magic program that can “read any file format, convert it to text for editing, and convert it back to the original encoded format when saving”. It’s an excellent text editor, and with the associated scripting and assuming an appropriate converter, it would be possible to automate the process of convert-on-load, convert-on-save, but it’s not going to be able to take an arbitrary binary format and magically know how to decode/decompile it.