What is the Burrows-Wheeler Transform?
The Burrows-Wheeler transform is a reversible process that reorders a block of data based by a unique application of sorting. The resulting transformed data can be compressed with a great deal of efficiency using conventional techniques. In their paper describing this algorithm, Burrows and Wheeler indicate that Wheeler first encountered the reversible transform in 1983, although I don’t think they give any attribution. There are quite a few good sources of information regarding the BWT on the net. I wrote an article for Dr. Dobb’s Journal that was published in 1996. You can find it on my home page by following the link to “Magazine Articles”, and going to September 1996: http://www.dogma.net/markn The original paper from Burrows and Wheeler is on a DEC web site at: http://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/DEC/SRC/research-reports/abstracts/src-rr-124.html Peter Fenwick has written a number of excellent papers on this transform, including some good ideas on how to best compress the data once tran
The Burrows-Wheeler transform is a reversible process that reorders a block of data based by a unique application of sorting. The resulting transformed data can be compressed with a great deal of efficiency using conventional techniques. In their paper describing this algorithm, Burrows and Wheeler indicate that Wheeler first encountered the reversible transform in 1983, although I don’t think they give any attribution. There are quite a few good sources of information regarding the BWT on the net. I wrote an article for Dr. Dobb’s Journal that was published in 1996. You can find it on my home page by following the link to “Magazine Articles”, and going to September 1996: http://www.dogma.net/markn The original paper from Burrows and Wheeler is on a DEC web site at: http://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/DEC/SRC/research-reports/abstracts/src-rr-124.html Peter Fenwick has written a number of excellent papers on this transform, including some good ideas on how to best compress the data once tran
