Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 18, 2026

Dyadic distribution

A dyadic distribution is a specific type of discrete probability distribution that is of some theoretical importance in data compression.

Last revised
Jun 18, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
108 w
Citations
1
Source

A dyadic (or 2-adic) distribution is a specific type of discrete probability distribution that is of some theoretical importance in data compression.

Definition

A dyadic distribution is a probability distribution whose probability mass function is

f ( i ) = 2 x i {\displaystyle f(i)=2^{-x_{i}}}

where x i {\displaystyle x_{i}} is some whole number.

It is possible to find a binary code defined on this distribution, which has an average code length that is equal to the entropy.1

References

References

  1. Cover, T.M., Joy A. Thomas, J.A. (2006) Elements of information theory, Wiley. ISBN 0-471-24195-4
  • Cover, T.M., Joy A. Thomas, J.A. (2006) Elements of information theory, Wiley. ISBN 0-471-24195-4