How to view contents of a .deb file

.deb packages can be installed by using dpkg -i .The dpkg installs(in windows terms)the necessary software on your system.But how do you view the contents of a .deb package.If it had been a package comprising of say installation and configuration files,you can always unzip them into a particular folder.What is present inside a .deb package? to find out,do a simple ar tv and you’ll get three files.

1.debian-binary(which contains the version number)

2.control.tar.gz

3.data.tar.gz

I’ll post about the contents of the other two files later…