Succinct Data Structures: Memory-Saving Power Tools for Programmers

A few months ago, while searching for ways to speed up code, the author stumbled upon succinct data structures. These structures store data compactly while supporting efficient query operations like rank and select. The article explores several key succinct data structures, including bit vectors, wavelet matrices, and FM-indices, highlighting their applications in Rust and related open-source libraries. The author discusses using these structures in XML processing and programming language compilers for better memory utilization and faster queries. Succinct data structures offer exciting new possibilities for programming, deserving wider adoption.