Zero suppression

Zero suppression is the removal of redundant zeroes from a number. This can be done for storage, page or display space constraints or formatting reasons, such as making a letter more legible.

Examples:
*00049823 - 49823
*7.678600000 - 7.6786
*0032.3231000 - 32.3231
*2.45000×10¹⁰ = 2.45×10¹⁰
*0.0045×10¹⁰ = 4.5×10⁷

But, (in physics) zeroes means the precision of the number. Examples:
* 4,59810000 is 4,5981±0,00000001
* 4,598100 is 4,5981±0,000001
* 4,5981 is 4,5981±0,0001

It is also a way to store a large array of numbers, where many of the entries are zero. By omitting the zeroes, and instead storing the indices along with the values of the non-zero items, less space may be used in total. It only makes sense if the extra space used for storing the indices (on average) is smaller than the space saved by not storing the zeroes.

Example:
*Original array: 0, 1, 0, 0, 2, 5, 0, 0, 0, 4, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
*Pairs of index and data: {2,1}, {5,2}, {6,5}, {10,4}

Source

* [http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/projects/devglossary/_zero_suppression.html Telecom Glossary 2000]

ee also

* Zero Code Suppression
* Zero suppressed decision diagram