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Reference.org
Variable-length quantity
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<p>A variable-length quantity (VLQ) is a <a href="/facts/Universal_code_(data_compression)/9zn1cM2M">universal code</a> that uses an arbitrary number of <a href="/facts/Binary_code/v5YF0sQl">binary</a> <a href="/facts/Octet_(computing)/dqCHsuUF">octets</a> (eight-<a href="/facts/Bit/S972NSaD">bit</a> <a href="/facts/Byte/BNHUp9Qq">bytes</a>) to represent an arbitrarily large <a href="/facts/Integer/PUwwrawx">integer</a>. A VLQ is essentially a base-128 representation of an unsigned integer with the addition of the eighth bit to mark continuation of bytes. VLQ is identical to <a href="/facts/LEB128/rzL7LjQX">LEB128</a> except in <a href="/facts/Endianness/wbrQnyu3">endianness</a>. See the example below. </p>