How to resolve the algorithm LZW compression step by step in the C# programming language
Published on 12 May 2024 09:40 PM
How to resolve the algorithm LZW compression step by step in the C# programming language
Table of Contents
Problem Statement
The Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) algorithm provides loss-less data compression. You can read a complete description of it in the Wikipedia article on the subject. It was patented, but it entered the public domain in 2004.
Let's start with the solution:
Step by Step solution about How to resolve the algorithm LZW compression step by step in the C# programming language
LZW Compression and Decompression Algorithm
Objective:
- Compresses and decompresses strings using the Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) algorithm.
Compression Process (Compress method):
- Initialize Dictionary: Create a dictionary containing the ASCII values (0-255) mapped to their corresponding single-character strings.
- Initialize Variables:
w
: empty string,compressed
: list of compressed integers. - Loop through the input string:
wc
: concatenatew
and the current character.- If
wc
is in the dictionary:w = wc
, continue looping. - Otherwise:
- Add
w
to the dictionary with the next available index. - Add the dictionary index of
w
tocompressed
. w = current character
, continue looping.
- Add
- Finish Compression: Add the remaining
w
to the compressed list if it's not empty.
Decompression Process (Decompress method):
- Initialize Dictionary: Same as compression.
- Initialize Variables:
w
: first value in the compressed list,decompressed
: string builder. - Remove the first value from compressed: It's the index of the first character.
- Loop through the compressed list:
entry
: dictionary value corresponding to the current index.- If the current index is not in the dictionary:
entry = w + w[0]
. - Append
entry
todecompressed
. - Add
w + entry[0]
to the dictionary with the next available index. w = entry
, continue looping.
Example:
- Input String: "TOBEORNOTTOBEORTOBEORNOT"
- Compressed List: [20, 97, 38, 71, 38, 15, 18, 79, 18, 15]
- Decompressed String: "TOBEORNOTTOBEORTOBEORNOT"
Additional Notes:
- The LZW algorithm uses variable-length codes, which allows it to achieve better compression ratios compared to fixed-length codes (e.g., Huffman coding).
- The dictionary grows dynamically during both compression and decompression, allowing for the efficient handling of repetitive sequences in the input.
- The algorithm is not lossless, meaning it may introduce slight changes in the decompressed output compared to the original input.
Source code in the csharp programming language
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
namespace LZW
{
public class Program
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<int> compressed = Compress("TOBEORNOTTOBEORTOBEORNOT");
Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", compressed));
string decompressed = Decompress(compressed);
Console.WriteLine(decompressed);
}
public static List<int> Compress(string uncompressed)
{
// build the dictionary
Dictionary<string, int> dictionary = new Dictionary<string, int>();
for (int i = 0; i < 256; i++)
dictionary.Add(((char)i).ToString(), i);
string w = string.Empty;
List<int> compressed = new List<int>();
foreach (char c in uncompressed)
{
string wc = w + c;
if (dictionary.ContainsKey(wc))
{
w = wc;
}
else
{
// write w to output
compressed.Add(dictionary[w]);
// wc is a new sequence; add it to the dictionary
dictionary.Add(wc, dictionary.Count);
w = c.ToString();
}
}
// write remaining output if necessary
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(w))
compressed.Add(dictionary[w]);
return compressed;
}
public static string Decompress(List<int> compressed)
{
// build the dictionary
Dictionary<int, string> dictionary = new Dictionary<int, string>();
for (int i = 0; i < 256; i++)
dictionary.Add(i, ((char)i).ToString());
string w = dictionary[compressed[0]];
compressed.RemoveAt(0);
StringBuilder decompressed = new StringBuilder(w);
foreach (int k in compressed)
{
string entry = null;
if (dictionary.ContainsKey(k))
entry = dictionary[k];
else if (k == dictionary.Count)
entry = w + w[0];
decompressed.Append(entry);
// new sequence; add it to the dictionary
dictionary.Add(dictionary.Count, w + entry[0]);
w = entry;
}
return decompressed.ToString();
}
}
}
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