# Fast Field Codecs
This crate contains various fast field codecs, used to compress/decompress fast field data in tantivy.
## Contributing
Contributing is pretty straightforward. Since the bitpacking is the simplest compressor, you can check it for reference.
A codec needs to implement 2 traits:
- A reader implementing `FastFieldCodecReader` to read the codec.
- A serializer implementing `FastFieldCodecSerializer` for compression estimation and codec name + id.
### Tests
Once the traits are implemented test and benchmark integration is pretty easy (see `test_with_codec_data_sets` and `bench.rs`).
Make sure to add the codec to the main.rs, which tests the compression ratio and estimation against different data sets. You can run it with:
```
cargo run --features bin
```
### TODO
- Add real world data sets in comparison
- Add codec to cover sparse data sets
### Codec Comparison
```
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| Autoincrement | | |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| LinearInterpol | 0.000039572664 | 0.000004396963 |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| MultiLinearInterpol | 0.1477348 | 0.17275847 |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| Bitpacked | 0.28126493 | 0.28125 |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| Monotonically increasing concave | | |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| LinearInterpol | 0.25003937 | 0.26562938 |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| MultiLinearInterpol | 0.190665 | 0.1883836 |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| Bitpacked | 0.31251436 | 0.3125 |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| Monotonically increasing convex | | |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| LinearInterpol | 0.25003937 | 0.28125438 |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| MultiLinearInterpol | 0.18676 | 0.2040086 |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| Bitpacked | 0.31251436 | 0.3125 |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| Almost monotonically increasing | | |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| LinearInterpol | 0.14066513 | 0.1562544 |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| MultiLinearInterpol | 0.16335973 | 0.17275847 |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| Bitpacked | 0.28126493 | 0.28125 |
+----------------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
```