variableencoding

noun

UK /ˈveəriəbl ɪnˈkəʊdɪŋ/

US /ˈveriəbl ɪnˈkoʊdɪŋ/

Variable encoding is a way of saving information where the amount of space used can change depending on what is being saved.

The app used variable encoding so small pictures took up less space than big ones.

SYNONYMS

variable-length encoding adaptive encoding dynamic encoding flexible encoding

RELATED WORDS

compression data storage file format bit rate

OTHER MEANINGS

2. In computing, a method where different characters or values are stored using different numbers of bits.

UTF-8 is a variable encoding that uses one to four bytes per character.

3. In machine learning, representing categories with different numbers of features depending on their importance.

The model used variable encoding to give common words more detail than rare ones.

4. In video and audio, changing the encoding settings based on the content to save space.

Variable encoding kept the quiet scenes small and the action scenes sharp.