Huffman Coding:

An Application of Binary
Trees and Priority Queues
 Huffman Coding
 Giving credit where credit
is due:
– Most of slides for this
lecture are based on slides
taken from internet.
– I have modified a few of them
and added some new slides
 Purpose of Huffman
Coding
 Proposed by Dr. David A.
Huffman in 1952
– “A Method for the Construction
of Minimum Redundancy Codes”
 Applicable to many forms of
data transmission
– Our example: text files
 First Approach

 Let the word

 How to write this string in a
most economical way?
 Since it has 5 words, 3 bit
to represent it is required!!

 Is there a better way?

Of Course!!
 However…

 There are some concerns…

 Suppose we have
– A-> 01
– B-> 0101
 If we have 010101, is this AB? BA?
Or AAA?
 Therefore: prefix codes, no
codeword is a prefix of another
codeword, is necessary
 Decode the following

E 0 E 0
T 11 T 10
N 100 N 100
I 1010 I 0111
S 1011 S 1010

11010010010101011 100100101010
 Prefix Codes

 Any prefix code can be represented

by a full binary tree

 Each leaf stores a symbol.

 Each node has two children – left
branch means 0, right means 1.
 codeword = path from the root to
the leaf interpreting suitably the
left and right branches
 For Example

 A = 0
 B = 100
 C = 1010
 D = 1011
 R = 11
 Decoding is unique
and simple!
 How do we find the
optimal coding tree?
 it is clear that the two symbols with
the smallest frequencies must be at
the bottom of the optimal tree, as
children of the lowest internal node

 Huffman’s idea is based on a greedy

approach, using the previous notices.
 Huffman Coding
 Initialization: Put all symbols on a list sorted
according to their frequency counts
 Repeat until the list has only one symbol left:
– From the list pick two symbols with the lowest
frequency counts. Form a Huffman sub-tree
that has these two symbols as child nodes and
create a parent node
– Assign the sum of the children’s frequency
counts to the parent and insert it into the
list such that the order is maintained
– Delete the children from the list
 Assign a codeword for each leaf based on the
path
from the root.
 Constructing a Huffman
Code
 Assume that frequencies of symbols
are
A: 50 B: 20 C: 10 D: 10 R: 30
 Smallest numbers are 10 and 10 (C
and D)
 Constructing a Huffman
Code

 C and D have already been

used, and the new node
above them (call it C+D)
has value 20
 Now the frequencies of symbols
are
A: 50 B: 20 C+D: 20 R: 30
 The smallest values are B,
C+D
 Constructing a Huffman
Code
 The frequencies of
symbols are
A: 50 B+C+D: 40
R: 30

 Smallest are B+C+D (40)

and R (30)
 Constructing a Huffman
Code
 The frequencies of symbols are
A: 50 B+C+D+R: 70
 Finally:
Constructing a Huffman
Code
 Decode the tree

Suppose we have the

Following code:
10001011

What is the decode

result?
 Exercise

 A: 64
 B: 13
 C: 22
 D: 32
 E: 103
 What is the Huffman
Encoding Tree?
Exercise
 The Complete Algorithm
1. Scan text to be compressed and tally
occurrence of all characters.
2. Sort or prioritize characters based on
number of occurrences in text.
3. Build Huffman code tree based on
prioritized list.
4. Perform a traversal of tree to determine
all code words.
5. Scan text again and create new file
using the Huffman codes.
 Algorithm for Building a
Huffman Tree
1. Construct a set of trees with root nodes that
contain each of the individual symbols and their
weights.
2. Place the set of trees into a priority queue.
3. while the priority queue has more than one item
4. Remove the two trees with the smallest weights.
5. Combine them into a new binary tree in which the
weight of the tree root is the sum of the
weights of its children.
6. Insert the newly created tree back into the
priority queue.
 Building a Tree
Scan the original text

 Consider the following short

text:

Eerie eyes seen near lake.

 Count up the occurrences of all

characters in the text
 Building a Tree
Scan the original text

Eerie eyes seen near lake.

 What characters are present?

E e r i
space
y s n a r l k .
 Building a Tree
Scan the original text

Eerie eyes seen near lake.

 What is the frequency of each
character in the text?
Char Freq. Char Freq. Char
E
Freq. 1 y 1 k 1
e 8 2 . 1
r 2 s 2
i 1 2
space 4 n 1
a
 Building a Tree
Prioritize characters

 Create binary tree nodes with

character and frequency of
each character
 Place nodes in a priority
queue
– The lower the occurrence, the
higher the priority in the queue
 Building a Tree

 The queue after inserting all

nodes

E i y l k . r s n a sp e
1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 4 8
 Building a Tree
 While priority queue contains two
or more nodes
– Create new node
– Dequeue node and make it left
subtree
– Dequeue next node and make it right
subtree
– Frequency of new node equals sum of
frequency of left and right children
– Enqueue new node back into queue
 Building a Tree

E i y l k . r s n a sp e
1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 4 8
 Building a Tree

y l k . r s n a sp e
1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 4 8

E i
1 1
 Building a Tree

y l k . r s n a sp e
2
1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 4 8
E i
1 1
 Building a Tree

k . r s n a sp e
2
1 1 2 2 2 2 4 8

E i
1 1

y l
1
1
 Building a Tree

2
k . r s n a 2 sp e
1 1 2 2 2 2 4 8
y l
E i 1 1
1 1
 Building a Tree

r s n a 2 2 sp e
2 2 2 2 4 8
y l
E i 1 1
1 1

k .
1 1
 Building a Tree

r s n a 2 2 sp e
2
2 2 2 2 4 8
E i y l k .
1 1
1 1 1 1
 Building a Tree

n a 2 sp e
2 2
2 2 4 8
E i y l k .
1 1
1 1 1 1

r s
2 2
 Building a Tree

n a 2 sp e
2 2 4
2 2 4 8

E i y l k . r s
1 1 1 1
1 1 2 2
 Building a Tree

2 4 e
2 2 sp
8
4
y l k . r s
E i
1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2

n a
2 2
 Building a Tree

2 4 4 e
2 2 sp
4 r s n a
y l k . 8
E i 2 2 2 2
1 1 1 1
1 1
 Building a Tree

4 4 e
2 sp
8
4 r s n a
k .
1 1 2 2 2 2

2 2

E i y l
1
1 1 1
 Building a Tree

4 4 4
2 sp e
4 2 2 8
k . r s n a
1 1 2 2 2 2
E i y l
1
1 1 1
 Building a Tree

4 4 4
e
2 2 8
r s n a
2 2
2 2 E i y l
1
1 1 1

2 sp
4
k .
1 1
 Building a Tree

4 4 4 6 e
2 sp 8
r s n a 2 2
4
2 2 k .
2 2
E i y l
1 1
1 1 1 1
 Building a Tree

4
6 e
2 2 2 8
sp
4
E i y l k .
1 1 8
1 1 1 1

4 4

r s n a
2 2
2 2
 Building a Tree

4
6 e 8
2 2 2 8
sp 4
4 4
E i y l k .
1 1 r s n a
1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2
 Building a Tree

8
e
8
4 4
10
r s n a
2 2 4
2 2 6
2 2 2 sp
4
E i y l k .
1 1 1 1 1 1
 Building a Tree

8 10
e
8 4
4 4
6

n a 2 2 2
r s sp
2 2 4
2 2 E i y l k .
1 1 1 1 1 1
 Building a Tree

10
16
4
6
2 2 e 8
2 sp
4 8
E i y l k . 4 4
1 1 1 1 1 1
r s n a
2 2
2 2
 Building a Tree

10 16

4
6
e 8
2 2
2 sp 8
4 4 4
E i y l k .
1 1 1 1 1 1 r s n a
2 2
2 2
 Building a Tree

26

16
10

4 e 8
6
8
2 2
2 sp 4 4
4
E i y l k .
1 1 1 r s n a
1 1 1 2 2
2 2
 Building a Tree
•After
enqueueing
26 this node
there is only
16
10 one node
4 e 8
left in
6
8
priority
2 2
2 sp 4 4 queue.
4
E i y l k .
r s n a
1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2
2 2
 Building a Tree
Dequeue the single node
left in the queue.
26

16
This tree contains the 10
new code words for each
4 e 8
character. 6
2 2 8
2 sp 4 4
4
Frequency of root node E i y l k .
1 1 1 1 1 1 r s n a
should equal number
of characters in 2 2 2
2
text.
 26 characters
Eerie eyes seen near
lake.
 Encoding the File
Traverse Tree for Codes

 Perform a traversal
of the tree to
obtain new code 26
words 16
10
 Going left is a 0
going right is a 1 4 e 8
6
 code word is only 2 2 8
2 sp 4 4
completed when a 4
E i y l k .
leaf node is 1 1 1 1 1 1 r s n a
reached 2 2 2
2
 Encoding the File
Traverse Tree for Codes
Char Code
E
i 0000
y 0001 26
0010 16
l 0011 10
0100 4 e 8
k 0101 6
. 011 2 2 2
8
4 4
sp
space 10 4
E i y l k .
e 1100 1 1 1 1 1 1 r s n a
r 1101 2 2 2
1110 2
s 1111
 Encoding the File
 Rescan text and
encode file using Char Code
new code words E
i 0000
Eerie eyes seen near y 0001
lake. 0010
0000101100000110011 l 0011
1000101011011010011 0100
1110101111110001100 k 0101
. 011
1111110100100101 space 10
 Why is there no need e 1100
for a separator r 1101
character? 1110
s 1111
.
 Encoding the File
Results
 Have we made
things any 0000101100000110011
better? 1000101011011010011
1110101111110001100
 73 bits to encode
1111110100100101
the text
 ASCII would take
8 * 26 = 208 bits
If modified code used 4 bits per
character are needed. Total bits
4 * 26 = 104. Savings not as
great.
 Decoding the File

 How does receiver know what the codes are?

 Tree constructed for each text file.
– Considers frequency for each file
– Big hit on compression, especially for smaller
files
 Tree predetermined
– based on statistical analysis of text files or
file types
 Data transmission is bit based versus byte
based
 Decoding the File
 Once receiver has
tree it scans 26

incoming bit stream 16

10
 0  go left 4 e 8
6
 1  go right 2 2 8
2 sp 4 4
4
101000110111101111 E i y l k .
1 1 1 1 1 1 r s n a
01111110000110101 2 2 2
2
 Summary

 Huffman coding is a technique used

to compress files for
transmission
 Uses statistical coding
– more frequently used symbols
have shorter code words
 Works well for text and fax
transmissions
 An application that uses several
data structures
 Huffman Coding example
Example: Information to be transmitted over the internet
contains
the following characters with their associated frequencies:
Character a e l n o s t
Frequency 45 65 13 45 18 22 53

Use Huffman technique to answer the following questions:

 Build the Huffman code tree for the message.

 Use the Huffman tree to find the codeword for each character.

 If the data consists of only these characters, what is the

total number of
bits to be transmitted? What is the compression ratio?
Huffman Coding example (cont’d)
Huffman Coding example (cont’d)
Huffman Coding example (cont’d)
Huffman Coding example (cont’d)
 Huffman Coding example (cont’d)

The sequence of zeros and ones that are the arcs in the path from the root to each leaf node are
the desired codes:
character a e l n o s t

Huffman 110 10 0110 111 0111 010 00

codeword
 Static Huffman Coding example (cont’d)

If we assume the message consists of only the characters then the

a,e,l,n,o,s,t
number of bits for the compressed message will be 696:

If the message is sent uncompressed with 8-bit ASCII representation for the
characters, we have 261*8 = 2088 bits.
 Encoding and decoding examples
 Encode (compress) the message tenseas
using the following codewords:
Answer: Replace each character with its
codeword:
001011101010110010

 Decode (decompress) each of the following

encoded messages, if possible, using the
Huffman
codeword tree given below
0110011101000 and 11101110101011:
 Encoding and decoding examples

Answer: Decode a bit-stream by starting at the root

and proceeding down the tree according to the bits
in the message (0 = left, 1 = right). When a leaf
is encountered, output the character at that leaf
and restart at the root .If a leaf cannot be
reached, the bit-stream cannot be decoded.

(a)0110011101000 =>
lost (b) 11101110101011

The decoding fails because the

corresponding node for 11 is not a leaf
 Exercises
1. Using the Huffman tree constructed in this session, decode the
following sequence of bits, if possible. Otherwise, where does
the decoding fail?
10100010111010001000010011

2. Using the Huffman tree constructed in this session, write the

bit sequences that encode the messages:
test , state , telnet , notes

3. Mention one disadvantage of a lossless compression scheme
and one disadvantage of a lossy compression scheme.

4. Write a Java program that implements the Huffman

coding algorithm.
Huffman Trees
Huffman Trees (cont.)