Samuel Ray-Alverson

Problem

Encode and decode text files for compression using Huffman coding. The program should do the following:

• accept a text file as input and output the compressed text and the Huffman tree  
• accept the compressed text and the Huffman tree and output the uncompressed original text.

Solution

I used a linked list binary tree of occurrences of each character in the tree to calculate the Huffman tree. I had to manage all the dynamic memory allocation and clean up of the unknown tree structure sizes.

Problem Encountered

• When sorting by the number of occurrences what do you do when multiple letters have the same number of occurrences?  As long as the same sort method was used in the encoding and decoding, then the original text and the decoded text would match. However, if you received a compressed text file and a key without knowing the sorting method, the results would not necessarily match.

**This project is based on an active assignment within the NCSU Computer Science department. The code is available for review by potential employers, upon request, in a limited capacity.