adattömörítést

Adattömörítés is a Hungarian term that translates to data compression in English. It refers to the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. This is achieved by identifying and eliminating redundancy within the data.

There are two primary categories of data compression: lossless and lossy. Lossless compression methods allow the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed version. This is crucial for data where every bit is important, such as text files, executable programs, or certain image formats like PNG. Examples of lossless compression algorithms include Huffman coding and Lempel-Ziv variants.

Lossy compression, on the other hand, achieves higher compression ratios by discarding some of the original data that is deemed less important to human perception. This method is commonly used for multimedia content like images (JPEG), audio (MP3), and video (MPEG), where slight imperfections are often unnoticeable to the user. The trade-off is that the original data cannot be perfectly recovered.

The purpose of data compression is to reduce the storage space required for files and to decrease the bandwidth needed for data transmission over networks. This leads to faster downloads, more efficient storage utilization, and improved overall performance in many digital applications. The choice between lossless and lossy compression depends entirely on the type of data and the specific requirements of its use.