Huffman Coding Visualizer

Overview

The Huffman Coding Visualizer demonstrates optimal prefix-free coding for lossless compression. Enter text and watch as the algorithm builds the Huffman tree, assigns variable-length codes, and computes compression ratio. Essential for understanding data compression and coding theory.

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Tips

  • Huffman coding assigns shorter codes to frequent symbols
  • Builds binary tree bottom-up by combining least frequent nodes
  • Prefix-free: no code is prefix of another (uniquely decodable)
  • Optimal for symbol-by-symbol encoding
  • Average code length approaches entropy
  • Applications: ZIP, JPEG, MP3, DEFLATE compression
  • More skewed frequency distribution = better compression
  • Try text with repeated characters to see compression gains