Huffman Coding
Huffman coding is a lossless data compression algorithm that assigns variable-length codes to input characters based on their frequencies, with more frequent characters getting shorter codes. It uses a greedy approach to construct an optimal prefix code binary tree, minimizing the total encoded length. This technique is widely used in file compression formats like ZIP, JPEG, and MP3 to reduce storage and transmission sizes.
Developers should learn Huffman coding when working on data compression, file formats, or systems where efficient storage or bandwidth usage is critical, such as in multimedia applications or network protocols. It provides a foundational understanding of entropy encoding and is essential for implementing or optimizing compression in tools like gzip, PNG image compression, or custom binary data serialization.