Arithmetic coding

Arithmetic coding is a method of data compression that encodes an entire message as a single, continuous number between 0 and 1. It works by dividing this interval based on the probability of each symbol. For example, more common symbols get larger portions of the interval, while rare ones get smaller. As each symbol is processed, the interval narrows, honing in on a unique value that represents the entire message. This approach efficiently reduces data size by capturing the overall statistical makeup of the message, making it ideal for lossless compression.