zig-zag encoding is brilliant. Basically you can determine positive or negative ... | Hacker News

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vitiral on May 23, 2024 | parent | context | favorite | on: vu128: Efficient variable-length integers

zig-zag encoding is brilliant. Basically you can determine positive or negative based on odd/even and divide by 2 to get the value. I tried to come up with a similar encoding and never thought of this

edflsafoiewq on May 23, 2024 | [–]

It's the same as enumerating 2D points in a spiral, but restricted to 1D.

repelsteeltje on May 23, 2024 | [–]

Yeah basically it's ones complement (or twos complement) but with the sign bit on the right, rather than the left.

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