variable-size encoding

noun

UK /ˈveəriəbl saɪz ɪnˈkəʊdɪŋ/

US /ˈveriəbl saɪz ɪnˈkoʊdɪŋ/

A way to store data where different pieces can take up different amounts of space.

The program uses variable-size encoding so short words take less memory than long ones.

SYNONYMS

variable-length encoding variable-width encoding variable-byte encoding length-variable coding

RELATED WORDS

compression byte character set data storage UTF-8

OTHER MEANINGS

2. A coding scheme in which each symbol is represented by a code of a different length.

Huffman coding is a classic variable-size encoding used in file compression.

3. A method of storing records where each record can have a different size.

The database uses variable-size encoding to save space when fields are empty.

4. A text encoding where characters use one or more bytes depending on the character.

UTF-8 is a variable-size encoding that keeps English letters to one byte.