Adattömörítés

Adattömörítés, also known as data compression, is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. The primary goal is to reduce the size of data for efficient storage and transmission. This reduction can significantly decrease storage space requirements and speed up data transfer over networks.

There are two main categories of data compression: lossless and lossy. Lossless compression algorithms allow the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data. This is crucial for data where any loss of information would be unacceptable, such as text files, executable programs, or medical images. Examples of lossless compression include ZIP, GZIP, and PNG.

Lossy compression, on the other hand, achieves higher compression ratios by discarding some of the original data. This is acceptable for data where some loss of fidelity is imperceptible to humans, such as audio, video, and photographic images. The discarded information is typically redundant or less important. Common examples of lossy compression formats are JPEG for images, MP3 for audio, and MPEG for video.

The effectiveness of compression depends on the redundancy present in the data. Data with a high degree of repetition or predictable patterns can be compressed more effectively than random data. Algorithms work by identifying and representing these redundancies in a more compact form.