Publication

Abstract : In this era where computer applications are becoming an essential in daily life, compression of data is vital. A range of algorithms for compression of files have been introduced and choosing the best among them is a vital decision. In this paper, we discuss lossless compression of text file using two different techniques of Variable Bit Representation – Word-based compression and Character-based compression. Word-based compression technique replaces words with bit values whereas Character based compression technique replaces character. In these methods, the repeated words/characters are represented as binary values where the word/character with the highest repetition count are represented with the lowest binary value(0) and the following word/character with the highest frequency(repetition count) is assigned the next value (1) and so on. These word/character and their equivalent bit values are saved in index table. These techniques are examined and then compared with each other to assess their effectiveness in compressing text data. This article infers which technique performs well for text data compression.