Succinct Representation of Data Structures

J. Ian Munro, S. Srinivasa Rao

Abstract: Although computer memories, at all levels of the hierarchy, have grown dramatically over the past few years, increased problem sizes continues to outstrip this growth. Minimizing space is crucial not only in keeping data in the fastest memory possible, but also in moving it from one level to another, be it from main memory to cache or from a web site around the world. Standard data compression, say Huffman code or grammar based code, applied to a large text file reduces space dramatically, but basic operations on the text require that it be fully decoded.