Compressed Data
Compressed data refers to information that has been processed to reduce its size using compression algorithms, enabling more efficient storage, transmission, and processing. It involves encoding data in a format that takes up less space than the original representation, often by removing redundancy or using more compact representations. This concept is fundamental in computing for optimizing resource usage in areas like file storage, network communication, and database management.
Developers should learn about compressed data to handle large datasets, improve application performance, and reduce costs associated with storage and bandwidth. Specific use cases include compressing log files for archival, optimizing image and video delivery in web applications, and implementing efficient data serialization in distributed systems. Understanding compression is also crucial for working with file formats like ZIP, GZIP, and modern media codecs.