Shannon–Fano–Elias coding

In information theory, Shannon–Fano–Elias coding is a precursor to arithmetic coding, in which probabilities are used to determine codewords.

Algorithm Description

Given a discrete random variable X of ordered values to be encoded, let $p(x)$ be the probability for any x in X. Define a function

$F(x)=\sum _{x_{i}<x}p(x_{i})+{\frac {1}{2}}p(x)$

Algorithm: For each x in X,

Let Z be the binary expansion of $F(x)$.

Choose the length of the encoding of x, $L(x)$, to be the integer$\lceil log_{2}{\frac {1}{p}}(x)\rceil +1$

Choose the encoding of x, $code(x)$, be the first $L(x)$ most significant bits after the decimal point of Z.

Example

Let X = {A, B, C, D}, with probabilities p = {1/3, 1/4, 1/6, 1/4}.

For A

Z(A) = ${\frac {1}{2}}p(A)$ = ${\frac {1}{2}}\cdot {\frac {1}{3}}$ = 0.1666...

In binary, Z(A) = 0.0010101010...

L(A) = $\lceil log_{2}{\frac {1}{\frac {1}{3}}}\rceil +1$ = 3

code(A) is 001

For B

Z(B) = $p(A)+{\frac {1}{2}}p(B)$ = ${\frac {1}{3}}+{\frac {1}{2}}\cdot {\frac {1}{4}}$ = 0.4583333...

In binary, Z(B) = 0.01110101010101...

L(B) = $\lceil log_{2}{\frac {1}{\frac {1}{4}}}\rceil +1$ = 3

code(B) is 011

For C

Z(C) = $p(A)+p(B)+{\frac {1}{2}}p(C)$ = ${\frac {1}{3}}+{\frac {1}{4}}+{\frac {1}{2}}\cdot {\frac {1}{6}}$ = 0.66666...

In binary, Z(C) = 0.101010101010...

L(C) = $\lceil log_{2}{\frac {1}{\frac {1}{6}}}\rceil +1$ = 4

code(C) is 1010

For D

Z(D) = $p(A)+p(B)+p(C)+{\frac {1}{2}}p(D)$ = ${\frac {1}{3}}+{\frac {1}{4}}+{\frac {1}{6}}{\frac {1}{2}}\cdot {\frac {1}{4}}$ = 0.875

In binary, Z(D) = 0.111

L(D) = $\lceil log_{2}{\frac {1}{\frac {1}{4}}}\rceil +1$ = 3

code(D) is 111