variable-length coding

noun
UK /ˈveəriəbl leŋθ ˈkəʊdɪŋ/
US /ˈveriəbl leŋθ ˈkoʊdɪŋ/

A way of storing data where different pieces can use different amounts of space.

The video app uses variable-length coding so small pictures take less space than big ones.

SYNONYMS

variable-length encodingvariable-length compressionvariable-size codingvariable-bit encoding

RELATED WORDS

Huffman codingdata compressionentropy encodingbitstreamprefix code

OTHER MEANINGS

2. A data compression method that assigns shorter codes to common symbols and longer codes to rare ones.

Huffman coding is a classic variable-length coding technique.

3. An encoding scheme in which instructions or records are not all the same size.

The processor supports variable-length coding for its instructions.

4. A method of representing text where characters can take up different numbers of bytes.

UTF-8 uses variable-length coding to store characters from many languages.