Hamming code

While transferring information between two points, possibility of occurrence of errors cannot be ruled out. It is always desirable to locate the error and detect the origin. The ability to detect errors is inbuilt in some codes. In some other codes, additional bits are added to the information to serve the purpose of detection of errors. When error detecting codes are not used to represent coded information or when information appears as conventional binary numbers, error detection is achieved by the addition of a parity bit. The minimum distance of a code is an important entity in code detection and correction. It is the smallest distance between any two valid code groups appearing in the coding scheme. Single-error correction is achieved when minimum distance of a code is three. Same code can also be used for double error detection. If minimum distance of a code is greater than 3, a provision for additional error-detecting and error-correcting can be enabled. Hamming code is an excellent coding scheme for tackling single error correction. Here several parity bits are accommodated in a code group.