Variable-length source codes provide bit savings compared to fixed-length source codes.Group of answer choicesTrueFalse

Answer

True

Explanation

Variable-length source codes are designed to assign shorter codes to more frequently occurring symbols and longer codes to less frequently occurring symbols. This coding technique is often used in applications such as Huffman coding or arithmetic coding, where the frequency of each symbol is taken into account.

In contrast, fixed-length source codes assign the same number of bits to each symbol, which can lead to inefficiencies, particularly if some symbols are much more common than others. For example, if a fixed-length code requires 4 bits per symbol, all symbols will take up an equal amount of space regardless of their frequency, leading to potentially wasted bits for rare symbols.

By allowing variable lengths, the average code length can be reduced, thus providing bit savings overall. As a result, variable-length source codes are more efficient for data compression compared to fixed-length codes, especially in scenarios where certain characters or symbols appear with much higher frequency.