Blocking for combinatorial coding/decoding for electrical computers and digital data processing systems

1. A method comprising:

determining, with a processor of a coding device, a first symbol string code, wherein the first symbol string code is indicative of a number of occurrences of a symbol string within data to be compressed;

identifying a first coding scheme for use in coding the first symbol string code; and

coding the first symbol string code into a compressed data code using the first coding scheme, wherein, during the coding, the first coding scheme accounts for previously coded portions of the data.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a second symbol string code indicative of a pattern of the symbol string;

identifying a second coding scheme for use in coding the second symbol string code; and

coding the second symbol string code into the compressed data code using the second coding scheme.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a theoretical minimum compression of the first symbol string code that is achievable.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising predicting an amount of compression of the first symbol string code that is provided by each of a plurality of coding schemes.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the amount of compression predicted to be provided by the first coding scheme is closer to the theoretical minimum compression than the amounts of compression predicted to be provided by any other coding scheme in the plurality of coding schemes.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying a block of data within the data to be compressed, wherein the first symbol string code comprises the number of occurrences of the symbol string within the block of data.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising determining a probability that the symbol string occurs within the data, wherein the block of data is identified based at least in part on the probability.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising encoding an identification of the first coding scheme into the compressed data code.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

combining additional symbol string codes into the compressed data code, wherein the additional symbol string codes correspond to additional symbol strings in the data; and

providing the compressed data code to a decoder.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a processor configured to:

determine a first symbol string code, wherein the first symbol string code is indicative of a number of occurrences of a symbol string within data to be compressed;

identify a first coding scheme for use in coding the first symbol string code; and

code the first symbol string code into a compressed data code using the first coding scheme, wherein, during the coding, the first coding scheme accounts for previously coded portions of the data; and

a transmitter operatively coupled to the processor and configured to transmit the compressed data code to a decoder.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the first coding scheme comprises at least one of an arithmetic coding scheme, a variable length coding scheme, a Huffman coding scheme, a Golomb coding scheme, a Huffman/Golomb hybrid coding scheme, or an adaptive coding scheme.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further configured to predict an amount of compression of the first symbol string code that is provided by each of a plurality of coding schemes.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the amount of compression predicted to be provided by the first coding scheme is closer to a theoretical minimum compression than the amounts of compression predicted to be provided by any other coding scheme in the plurality of coding schemes.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the processor is further configured to identify a block of data within the data to be compressed, wherein the first symbol string code comprises the number of occurrences of the symbol string within the block of data.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the block of data is identified based at least in part on the theoretical minimum compression.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further configured to encode an identification of the first coding scheme into the compressed data code.

17. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further configured to encode an identification of the symbol string into the compressed data code.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon, computer-executable instructions that, if executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:

determining a first symbol string code indicative of a number of occurrences of a symbol string within data to be compressed;

identifying a first coding scheme;

generating a second symbol string code indicative of a pattern of the symbol string; and

coding the first symbol string code and the second symbol string code into a compressed data code, wherein the first symbol string code is coded using the first coding scheme, and, during the coding, the first coding scheme accounts for previously coded portions of the data.

19. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 18 , further comprising identifying a second coding scheme for coding the second symbol string code into the compressed data code, wherein the second coding scheme is identified based at least in part on a theoretical minimum compression of the second symbol string code.

20. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 19 , further comprising determining the theoretical minimum compression of the second symbol string code.

21. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 19 , further comprising encoding a first identification of the first coding scheme and a second identification of the second coding scheme into the compressed data code.

22. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 18 , further comprising encoding an identification of the symbol string into the compressed data code.