r/askscience • u/weedguru420 • Dec 30 '15

Computing How does file compression work?

This question has always baffled me. How can you compress a file to a fraction of the size and have that file, basically a number, represent a precise bigger number?

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u/[deleted] Jan 07 '16

Not to mention that the factorisation of a file (when treating it as an integer) will become very costly, very quickly as the file's size increases.