Compression Formats
Compression formats are algorithms and file formats used to reduce the size of data for storage or transmission, enabling efficient resource usage and faster data handling. They work by eliminating redundancy or using encoding techniques to represent data more compactly, with common types including lossless (preserving all original data) and lossy (sacrificing some data for higher compression).
Developers should learn compression formats to optimize applications for performance, bandwidth, and storage, such as in web development for faster page loads (e.g., using gzip for HTTP compression) or in data-intensive fields like media processing (e.g., using JPEG for images). Understanding these formats is crucial for scenarios like file archiving, network transmission, and big data analytics to reduce costs and improve user experience.