An online algorithm for lightweight grammar-based compression

Grammar-based compression is a well-studied technique to construct a context-free grammar (CFG) deriving a given text uniquely. In this work, we propose an online algorithm for grammar-based compression. Our algorithm guarantees O(log² n)-approximation ratio for the minimum grammar size, where n is an input size, and it runs in input linear time and output linear space. In addition, we propose a practical encoding, which transforms a restricted CFG into a more compact representation. Experimental results by comparison with standard compressors demonstrate that our algorithm is especially effective for highly repetitive text.