In this comprehensive web content, the author takes us through the implementation of a data compression program in Haskell using Huffman coding. The program aims to handle arbitrary binary files while maintaining constant memory usage for encoding and decoding. Huffman codes are explained as a method of mapping characters to unique bit sequences for compression, showing how common characters are represented with shorter sequences. The post delves into creating prefix-free codes, constructing complete binary trees, and provides a step-by-step guide to implementing Huffman codes in practice. Notably, the article highlights the use of lazy evaluation in Haskell to manage memory efficiently throughout the encoding process. The post concludes with practical examples and functions for encoding and decoding text and binary data using Huffman codes. It also includes a demonstration of compressing and decompressing files using the implemented program.
https://lazamar.github.io/haskell-data-compression-with-huffman-codes/