You can't create zip files on your iPad, but opening zip files is easy to do. Here's how to open zip files on an iPad and extract their contents.

How to Open a Zip File in Excel 2007. A ZIP file usually contains several other files that have been compressed to a smaller size and bundled into a single package with a .zip filename extension.

You no longer need third-party apps if you want to open zip files on iOS. Rar files? That's another story.