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Huffman Coding in Go Overview Huffman coding is an algorithm used for lossless data compression. It assigns variable-length codes to input characters, with shorter codes assigned to more frequent characters. This program implements Huffman coding in Go, utilizing a priority queue to build the Huffman tree and visualizing the tree structure using the treedrawer library.

Table of Contents Installation Usage Key Components HuffmanNode PriorityQueue Functions Huffman Tree Visualization Example License Installation Ensure you have Go installed on your machine. You can check by running:

bash Copy code go version To install the treedrawer library, run:

bash Copy code go get github.com/m1gwings/treedrawer/tree Usage To run the program, use the following command:

bash Copy code go run main.go "" Replace with the string you want to compress.

Key Components HuffmanNode The HuffmanNode struct represents a node in the Huffman tree. It contains:

char: The character represented by this node. freq: The frequency of the character. left: A pointer to the left child node. right: A pointer to the right child node. PriorityQueue The PriorityQueue type is a slice of HuffmanNode pointers that implements a min-heap. It is used to efficiently build the Huffman tree based on character frequencies. It includes methods for:

Len(): Returns the length of the queue. Less(): Defines the order of elements (by frequency and character). Swap(): Swaps two elements in the queue. Push(): Adds a new element to the queue. Pop(): Removes and returns the highest priority element. Functions BuildHuffmanTree(input string) *HuffmanNode

Builds the Huffman tree from the input string and returns the root node. GenerateHuffmanCodes(node *HuffmanNode, code string, codes map[rune]string)

Recursively generates Huffman codes for each character by traversing the tree. DrawHuffmanTree(node *HuffmanNode, parent *tree.Tree, freqMap map[rune]int)

Visualizes the Huffman tree using the treedrawer library. PrintFrequencyArray(freqMap map[rune]int)

Prints a sorted frequency array of characters in the input string. Huffman Tree Visualization The program visualizes the Huffman tree, displaying each character and its corresponding frequency at the leaf nodes. Internal nodes display the combined frequencies of their child nodes.

Example Input bash Copy code go run main.go "this is an example for huffman encoding" Output plaintext Copy code Frequency Array:

3 ( ) 1 (a) 1 (d) 1 (e) 1 (f) 1 (g) 1 (h) 1 (i) 1 (l) 1 (m) 2 (n) 1 (o) 1 (r) 1 (s) 1 (t) 1 (u) 1 (x)

Huffman Codes:

Char Code 00 a 1111 d 1100 e 1110 f 1101 g 1010 h 0111 i 1000 l 1001 m 0101 n 0100 o 1011 r 0110 s 0010 t 0011 u 0010 x 1111

Huffman Tree License This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more information.

Feel free to modify any sections or add more information to fit your needs!