LZ77
LZ77 is a lossless data compression algorithm developed by Abraham Lempel and Jacob Ziv in 1977. It works by replacing repeated occurrences of data with references to a single copy, using a sliding window technique that looks back at previously processed data to find matches. This algorithm forms the foundation for many widely used compression formats like ZIP, GZIP, and PNG.
Developers should learn LZ77 when working on data compression tasks, such as file archiving, network transmission optimization, or embedded systems with limited storage. It is particularly useful for compressing text, source code, or any data with repetitive patterns, as it efficiently reduces size without losing information, making it essential for applications like web servers (e.g., HTTP compression) or database backups.