Editing Entropy coding (section)

== Entropy as a measure of similarity ==

Besides using entropy coding as a way to compress digital data, an entropy encoder can also be used to measure the amount of [[Similarity measure|similarity]] between [[data stream|streams of data]] and already existing classes of data.  This is done by generating an entropy coder/compressor for each class of data; unknown data is then [[Statistical classification|classified]] by feeding the uncompressed data to each compressor and seeing which compressor yields the highest compression.  The coder with the best compression is probably the coder trained on the data that was most similar to the unknown data.