Encoding and encryption are used interchangeably. Encryption involves encoding data for confidentiality and security, while encoded data is not necessarily confidential.

What is encoding?

Encoding is converting data from one format to another so that a different system can safely use it. This might involve sending binary (1s and 0s) data via email or displaying special characters on a webpage.

Encoding aims to ensure that information is communicated accurately and can be read by the receiving system.

Character encoding, for example, allows computers to “read” text by converting each text character (letters, numbers, symbols, and spaces) into binary code (1s and 0s), which is the language that computers understand.

Encoding does not keep information confidential or secure data. It uses a publicly available system to transform data and does not require a key for decoding; only the algorithm is used for encoding.

Some examples of encoding methods include binaryhexadecimal, and ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange).

Screenshot by the author

An example of encryption could be sending a private message that can only be read by the intended recipient or securely transmitting a password via email.

Encoding makes data readable and usable, while encryption aims to keep data private and unreadable to unauthorized parties.

Why encode data?

You may wonder, why encode data?

Encoding is crucial for transforming binary data into a computer-readable format. It uses 0s and 1s to represent information and allows the computer to process and decode the data back to its original state

When data is saved on a computer, it is transformed into a stream of bytes — binary code.

After processing, the computer decodes and displays binary data on the screen. Encoded data can only be accessed by compatible programs. Audio and video files use codecs, short for “coder-decoder.”

codec is an advanced encoding algorithm designed to efficiently compress multimedia data for seamless playback, ensuring high-quality media experiences.

Conclusion

When you open a file, your computer retrieves the necessary bytes from your hard drive and decodes the information based on the file’s extension.

For example, a .mp3 extension means the file contains audio. Various formats, such as MP3, WAV, and AIFF, can store audio files.

Other file formats include JPG (for images), MP4 (for videos), and TXT (for text files).

Encoding data can also compress files into smaller formats to save disk space.

I hope all this made sense to you and that you know more about encoding and encryption.

*Check out my other articles, and stay tuned for more exciting ones.*


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