Decoding data compression algorithms

Data compression is an essential methodology used for data storage. It not only enhances storage efficiency and minimizes data transmission times, but it also has significant implications for cost savings and performance improvements, particularly in the realm of big data and cloud computing. This section presents the details data compression techniques, with a special focus on the lossless algorithms Huffman and LZ77, and their influence on modern compression schemes, such as Gzip, LZO, and Snappy.

Lossless compression techniques

Lossless compression revolves around eliminating redundancy in data to minimize storage needs while ensuring perfect reversibility. Huffman and LZ77 are two foundational algorithms that have strongly influenced the field.

Huffman coding focuses on variable-length coding, representing frequent characters with fewer bits, while LZ77, a dictionary-based algorithm, exploits repeated data sequences and represents...