Abstract: A system for compressing and decompressing a data pattern of data bits, so as to obtain a highly compressed data record. In accordance with embodiments of the invention, a group of candidate numbers is provided with each number comprising a sequence of statistically random bits. Bits of a subject data pattern are compared with bits of each candidate of the group of numbers to find a largest sequence of bits of the subject data pattern which match a sequence of bits within any one of the group of candidate numbers. Stored are all of: the data pattern except the matched bits, information designating the candidate number providing a largest matching sequence of bits, locations of the matched bits in the subject data pattern and in the candidate number, and a number encoding a number of the matched bits.