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Compress[expr]

gives a compressed representation of expr as a string.

Details and Options
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Properties & Relations  
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Compress

Compress[expr]

gives a compressed representation of expr as a string.

Details and Options

  • Compress[expr] gives a compressed representation of any expression.
  • The string generated by Compress contains only printable ASCII characters.
  • Uncompress is the inverse of Compress.

Examples

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Basic Examples  (3)

A compressed representation of with 100-digit precision:

Wolfram Language code: Compress[N[Pi, 100]]
Wolfram Language code: Uncompress[%]

Import an image:

Wolfram Language code: a = Import["ExampleData/rose.gif"]

Number of bytes used to store the image:

Wolfram Language code: ByteCount[a]

Number of bytes of a compressed representation of the image:

Wolfram Language code: ByteCount[Compress[a]]

Compress a general expression:

Wolfram Language code: e = D[x ^ x, {x, 10}];

In this case there is almost a factor of 50 compression:

Wolfram Language code: {ByteCount[e], ByteCount[Compress[e]]}

Properties & Relations  (1)

Compress a list of unique numbers and plot the sizes:

Wolfram Language code: ListPlot[Table[StringLength[Compress[Range[n]]], {n, 100}]]

Compress a list with repeated values and plot the sizes:

Wolfram Language code: ListPlot[Table[StringLength[Compress[Mod[Range[n], 20]]], {n, 100}]]
Wolfram Research (2007), Compress, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Compress.html.

Text

Wolfram Research (2007), Compress, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Compress.html.

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2007. "Compress." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Compress.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2007). Compress. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Compress.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2026_compress, author="Wolfram Research", title="{Compress}", year="2007", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Compress.html}", note=[Accessed: 12-June-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2026_compress, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={Compress}, year={2007}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Compress.html}, note=[Accessed: 12-June-2026]}