Unique Identifiers Nodes In A Huffman Tree

I'm building a Python program to compress/decompress a text file using a Huffman tree. Previously, I would store the frequency table a .json file alongside the compressed file. Whe

Solution 1:

1. In the Huffman algorithm you need to pick the lowest two frequencies in a deterministic way that is the same on both sides. If there is a tie, you need to use the symbol to break the tie. Without that, you have no assurance that the sorting on both sides will pick the same symbols when faced with equal frequencies.

2. You don't need to send the frequencies. All you need to send is the bit lengths for the symbols. The lengths can be coded much more compactly than the frequencies. You can build a canonical code from just the lengths, using the symbols to order the codes unambiguously.