This is a useful reference to the whole area of source coding algorithms. This book describes in detail the coding mechanisms that are available for use in data compression systems. The well known Huffman coding technique is one mechanism, but there have been many others developed over the past few decades, and this book describes, explains and assesses them. People undertaking research of software development in the areas of compression and coding algorithms will find this book a useful reference tool. This book combines detailed description of algorithms and their implementation, plus accompanying pseudo-code that can be readily implemented on computer. It provides detailed pseudo-code presentation of over 30 algorithms, and an explanation of examples. Compression and throughput results are presented where appropriate, and serve as a validation of the assessments and recommendation made in the text. It also gives an in-depth coverage of the crucial areas of minimum-redundancy coding, arithmetic coding and adaptive coding.