structurecompact

structurecompact is a term used in computer science to describe approaches for representing structured data in a compact form while preserving the logical structure and operability of the original data. The goal is to reduce memory usage and improve locality without making common operations slower than necessary. Core ideas include structural sharing, succinct data structures, and domain-specific encodings that compress topology and content. Applications include compilers, databases, and memory-constrained systems. Trade-offs: while space savings can be substantial, access time may suffer due to decoding or indirection; design choices depend on access patterns. Examples include a tree encoded with a succinct representation that uses a bitvector to encode edges and a parallel value array, or graphs stored with compact adjacency representations. In functional programming, persistent data structures with structural sharing illustrate structurecompactness by reusing unchanged substructures. See also: compact data structures, structural sharing, succinct data structures.