This is simple binary packing approach to storing small-type data in wider types. Delta compression is a natural next step from here. I once published a blog po

This is simple binary packing approach to storing small-type data in wider types. Delta compression is a natural next step from here. I once published a blog post on that topic: http://bitcharmer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/how-to-serialise-array-of-doubles-with.html http://bitcharmer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/how-to-serialise-ar... Mind you, the reference implementation from the blog is really poor in terms of code quality and performance because I was not allowed to open-source what I actually developed for my client, but the ideas still stand. Delta compression can make a huge difference in some cases; because cpu cycles are cheap and bitwise operations are very fast it has the potential to bring serious benefits in some scenarios, ie. lower latency of transmitting (numeric) data over networks.