1.what's problem we faced?
/**
* Q: what's problem we faced?
*
* A: Data compression is still a problem, even now. we want to compress
* the space of data. This desire is more and more stronger when we
* need to deal with some operation about data transmission. Before
* we start this article, it may be helpful if you try to provide a valid way
* to compress data . I tried, but failed obviously. That why I write this
* article. ^_^
*/
2. How can I solve it?
/**
* Q: How can I solve it?
*
* A: Where have problem is where have an answer, although it not always
* the best one. In 1951, a algorithm was introduced by David A. Huffman.
* It is different from the normal code and is a variable length code, which
* have different length of code for different symbol. Now, there are two
* problems:
*
* No.1: is variable length code possible? How can we know the length
* of current symbol?
*
* The answer is prefix code. Think about this, a tree like following:
*
*
* O
* 1 / 0
* O O
* 1 / 0 c
* O O
* a b
*
* This is a simple binary tree. There are three leaf node: a, b ,and c.we
* label all of left branch as 1, and all of right branch as 0. So if we want
* to arrive the leaf node a, the path is 11. In a similar way, we can get
* all of nodes:
* a : 11
* b : 10
* c : 0
*
* By accident, we get a variable length code.
*
*
* No.2: How can we use variable length code to compress a series of symbol?
*
* Now that we have a ability about variable length code. Some funny thing
* will happen. Image this, In a data, which consist of a series of symbols,
* some of symbols have occur at high proportion. some of symbols has occur
* at low proportion. If we use some shorter code to indicate those symbols
* which have a high proportion, the space of data will smaller than ever.
* That is what we want.
*
* Now, we have been know that we could compress a data by use variable length
* code. However, the next problem is what kind of variable length code is what we
* want. what kind of code is optimal ?
*/
3. What is HuffmanCoding ?
/**
* Q: What is HuffmanCoding ?
*
* A:Now,the problem is how can I create a optimal tree ? Do you have any idea?
* Huffman was introduced a algorithm. It is looks like greedy algorithm. It is may
* be simple, but the result is valid( this will be demonstrated below). The simplest
* construction algorithm use a priority queue where the node with lowest probability
* is given highest priority, the steps as following:
*
* 1. create a leaf node for each symbol, and add it to the priority queue.
* 2. while there is more than one node in the queue:
* 1. remove two nodes that have the highest priority.
* 2. create a new node as the parent node of the two nodes above. the
* probability of this one is equal to the sum of the two nodes' probabilities.
* 3. add the new node to the queue.
* 3. the remaining node is the root of this tree. Read it's code as we do above.
*
*/
4. is it optimal ?
/**
* Q: is it optimal ?
*
* A: Hard to say. I haven't a valid method to measure this. About this issue, it is necessary to hear
* about other people's advice. I believe there must be some exciting advice. By the way, this article
* is just talk about compress of independent symbol, another important issue is about related symbol.
* That maybe a serious problem.
*
*/
5. source code
/** * Here is an simple example */ #include <stdio.h> #include <iostream> /** * In a Huffman tree, some of nodes is valid symbol, and other is a combine node, which * haven't a valid symbol. we need to label it in our nodes. */ enum ELEM_TYPE { ET_VALID, ET_INVALID, ET_MAX, }; typedef int INDEX; /** * this is a container, we push all of element to it, and pop element by a priority. It is * a class template since we don't know the type of data element. */ template <class ELEM> class Container { public: Container( int capacity); ~Container( ); /* * push a element to this container. */ bool push( ELEM item); /* * pop a element from this container, the smallest one have the most priority. * Of course, the element must have provide a reload function for operator '<'. */ bool pop( ELEM &item ); private: bool _find_idle( INDEX &num); bool _set_elem( INDEX num, ELEM &elem); bool _get_elem( INDEX num, ELEM &elem); ELEM *ele; ELEM_TYPE *stat; int cap; }; template <class ELEM> Container<ELEM>::Container( int capacity) { this->ele = new ELEM[capacity] ; this->stat = new ELEM_TYPE[capacity]; int i; for( i=0; i<capacity; i++) this->stat[i] = ET_INVALID; this->cap = capacity ; } template <class ELEM> Container<ELEM>::~Container( ) { if( this->ele!=NULL ) delete []this->ele; if( this->stat!=NULL ) delete []this->stat; this->cap = 0; } template <class ELEM> bool Container<ELEM>::push( ELEM item) { INDEX num = -1; if( (!this->_find_idle( num)) ||(!this->_set_elem( num, item))) return false; return true; } template <class ELEM> bool Container<ELEM>::pop( ELEM &item ) { INDEX i = 0; INDEX Min; /* * find the first valid element. */ while( (this->stat[i]!=ET_VALID) &&( i<this->cap)) i++; for( Min = i ; i<this->cap; i++) { if( ( this->stat[i]==ET_VALID) &&( this->ele[i]<this->ele[Min])) { Min = i; } } return this->_get_elem( Min, item); } template <class ELEM> bool Container<ELEM>::_find_idle( INDEX &num) { INDEX i; for( i=0; i<this->cap; i++) { if( this->stat[i]==ET_INVALID ) { num = i; return true; } } return false; } template <class ELEM> bool Container<ELEM>::_set_elem( INDEX num, ELEM &elem) { if( (num>=this->cap) ||(num<0) ) return false; this->stat[num] = ET_VALID; this->ele[num] = elem; return true; } template <class ELEM> bool Container<ELEM>::_get_elem( INDEX num, ELEM &elem) { if( (num<0) ||(num>=this->cap)) return false; this->stat[num] = ET_INVALID; elem = this->ele[num]; return true; } /** * define a type of symbol. It will be used to record all information about a symbol. */ typedef char SYMINDEX; typedef int SYMFRE; class Symbol { public: /* * In the Huffman tree, we need to compute the sum of two child symbol. * For convenience,build a reload function is necessary. */ Symbol operator + ( Symbol &s); SYMINDEX sym; SYMFRE freq; }; Symbol Symbol::operator +( Symbol &s) { Symbol ret; ret.sym = '