Huffman Encoding Algorithm Implementation in MATLAB

The Huffman encoding algorithm is a prefix-free coding technique that achieves data compression by constructing binary codes with the shortest average length. This article demonstrates a MATLAB implementation of Huffman encoding, providing detailed documentation with code-specific explanations and algorithm analysis.

Huffman encoding serves as an efficient data compression algorithm that assigns shorter codes to frequently occurring characters and longer codes to less common characters, thereby reducing overall data storage requirements. The MATLAB implementation involves key steps including frequency analysis, binary tree construction, and code generation using priority queues.

This article elaborates on Huffman coding principles and implementation methodology, featuring MATLAB code examples that illustrate character frequency counting, Huffman tree building using the 'huffmantree' function, and code assignment through tree traversal. The accompanying Word documentation provides comprehensive guidance on algorithm parameters, MATLAB function usage, and practical application scenarios for better understanding and utilization of this encoding technique.