Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Verified for the 2026 exam
Verified for the 2026 exam•Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Definition
Data compression is the process of reducing the size of data files while maintaining as much information as possible. This allows for more efficient storage and transmission of data.
Lossless compression algorithms are methods used to compress data files without losing any information. The compressed file can be fully restored to its original form without any loss of data.
These are compression algorithms that sacrifice some amount of data quality in order to achieve higher levels of compression.
Huffman Coding: It is a popular algorithm used for lossless data compression, where shorter codes are assigned to more frequently occurring symbols in order to reduce overall file size.