Abstract: A system and method for compressing and decompressing data in real time begins by taking a character string from an input string, generating a hash value of the character string which is utilized in a look up table to address a chained array or list of previously matching character strings. The array is updated if there is another.matching character string found when compressing the input string. A token generator writes a code to the output string indicating whether or not that there has been a match. The token generator generates an indication of the length of the character string not compressed, the one or more characters string not compressed, the length of a matching character string, and the number of characters processed since the last match. These values generated by the token generator are optimally represented based upon preselected criteria.

Abstract: A system and method for compressing and decompressing data in real time begins by taking a character string from an input string, generating a hash value of the character string which is utilized in a look up table to address a chained array or list of previously matching character strings. The array is updated if there is another matching character string found when compressing the input string. A token generator writes a code to the output string indicating whether or not that there has been a match. The token generator generates an indication of the length of the character string not compressed, the one or more characters string not compressed, the length of a matching character string, and the number of characters processed since the last match. These values generated by the token generator are optimally represented based upon preselected criteria.