prefix-free code
nounA prefix-free code is a set of secret code words where no code word is the start of another code word.
In a prefix-free code, the code for 'A' cannot be the beginning of the code for 'B'.
OTHER MEANINGS
2. A coding scheme in which no valid codeword is a prefix of any other valid codeword, allowing messages to be decoded without separators.
Morse code is not a prefix-free code because some letters' codes begin other letters' codes.
3. A set of strings over an alphabet such that no string in the set is a prefix of another string in the set.
The set {0, 10, 11} is a prefix-free code over the binary alphabet.
4. A technique used in data compression and telecommunications to ensure unambiguous decoding of variable-length codes.
Huffman coding produces a prefix-free code that assigns shorter codes to more frequent symbols.