Shannon-Fano-visualizer

A python app to demonstrate the working principle of Shannon Fano Code

Shannon-Fano Coding Visualizer

Overview

This Python Tkinter application visually demonstrates the Shannon-Fano coding algorithm, a fundamental lossless data compression method. It allows users to input messages, and showcases a step-by-step encoding process including frequency calculation, probability sorting, recursive division, and code assignment. The project features a professional two-panel GUI with interactive binary tree visualization and comprehensive compression statistics.

Features

• User-friendly, modern GUI with dark/light themed panels
• Step-by-step visualization of Shannon-Fano encoding
• Interactive binary tree construction and display
• Detailed compression statistics, including entropy and efficiency
• Error-free real-time encoding for messages of varying length

Installation

1. Ensure Python 3.6+ is installed with Tkinter support
2. Download or clone this repository
3. Run the app:

How to Use

1. Enter the message in the left panel input box
2. Click “Generate Codes” to start encoding
3. View each encoding step in the “Step-by-Step Process” tab
4. Explore the binary tree in the “Tree Diagram” tab
5. Check the final encoded output and stats in the “Final Results” tab

How Shannon-Fano Works

1. Calculate the frequency and probability of each symbol
2. Sort symbols by probability in descending order
3. Split symbols into two groups with near-equal total probability
4. Assign '0' to upper group and '1' to lower group recursively
5. Repeat until unique prefix-free binary codes are assigned to all symbols

Screenshots

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Author

Shubham Yadav

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