CANONICAL HUFFMAN CODE Meaning and
Definition
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A canonical Huffman code is a compressed representation of data, particularly used in areas like data compression and file organization. It is a variation of the Huffman coding algorithm, which is commonly used for lossless data compression. The canonical Huffman code has the advantage of being more efficient in terms of space requirements and simpler to implement.
In a canonical Huffman code, instead of assigning variable-length codes to each input symbol based on their frequency of occurrence, a specific code structure is predetermined. The code structure ensures that the codes for symbols with fewer bits come first, followed by symbols with increasing number of bits. This deterministic mapping of code lengths allows for easier decoding as well as simplified encoding.
To construct a canonical Huffman code, the input symbols are first sorted in ascending order of their frequencies. A unique code length is then assigned to each symbol, where the code lengths are non-decreasing. These code lengths are used to assign binary codes to the symbols in a way that maintains the monotonicity property.
The canonical Huffman code is highly efficient for transmission and storage purposes as it results in shorter codes with minimal overhead. It also facilitates easy implementation and decoding without the need to transmit the code lengths explicitly. The canonical Huffman code is widely used in various applications, including file compression algorithms, where its efficiency and simplicity play a crucial role in achieving effective data compression.
