Why encoding is used

Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds. Here are some of the advantages of choosing to encode for your data: Encoding keeps your data safe since the files are not readable unless you have access to the algorithms that were used to encode it. This is a good way to protect your data from theft since any stolen files would not be usable.

Encoding is an ideal solution if you need to have third parties access your archives but do not want to have everyone be able to access some sensitive files. Since encoding removes redundancies from data, the size of your files will be a lot smaller. This results in faster input speed when data is saved. Since encoded data is smaller in size, you should be able to save space on your storage devices. Email Us. Search Site. Thank you for contacting us. One of our expert consultants will review your inquiry.

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Latest News. Encoding Encoding data is a process involving changing data into a new format using a scheme. Encoding is not used to protect or secure data because it is easy to reverse. An example of encoding is: Base64 Take a scenario where a user wants to upload a resume to a job application website and the web server stores Hashing Hashing involves computing a fixed-length mathematical summary of data, the input data can be any size.

In addition, the original ASCII specification included 33 non-printing control codes which originated with Teletype machines; most of these are now obsolete, although a few are still commonly used, such as the carriage return, line feed and tab codes.

This means that text containing non-English characters such as accented letters, or special letters used in other languages cannot be accurately encoded in ASCII without changing the special characters to English standard ones. ASCII was designed using 7-bit codes to represent the characters it encoded, but because all modern computers use bytes 8 bits as their smallest memory unit, ASCII characters are now stored using 8 bits per character.

The first bit is simply not used. Instead of writing the binary representations of longer texts in full, we will use hexadecimal notation for the binary data. When you open an ASCII encoded text file in a text editor, the program reads each byte of the file and looks up the value in an ASCII table to determine which character to show for that byte. ASCII is a very limited encoding though. It only contains 95 printable characters and can therefore only be used to encode those characters. If you have textual data that contain more characters than those 95 printable characters, you will have to use another encoding.

Those are the basics of how encoding works. Sign up. Term of the Day. Best of Techopedia weekly. News and Special Offers occasional. Techopedia Explains Encoding. What Does Encoding Mean?

In electronics, encoding refers to analog to digital conversion. Techopedia Explains Encoding Encoding involves the use of a code to change original data into a form that can be used by an external process.