Compression ratio for a compression engine

A computer system for processing an output sequence of data elements in a data processing system, the computer system comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processor in communication with the memory, wherein the computer system is configured to perform a method, said method comprising:
• identifying by a compression engine of the data processing system a backward reference in a selected output data element of the output sequence of data elements;
• using by the compression engine the identified backward reference for selecting a string to which it refers;
• combining the selected string with one or more strings of one or more subsequent output data elements to form one or more combined strings;
• finding one or more matching sequences in a sequence of input data elements matching at least part of the one or more combined strings;
• and
• redefining the backward reference to indicate a selected matching sequence, thereby generating a redefined output data element.

A computer program product for processing an output sequence of data elements in a data processing program product, the computer system comprising:

• a computer readable storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising:
• identifying by a compression engine of the data processing system a backward reference in a selected output data element of the output sequence of data elements;
• using by the compression engine the identified backward reference for selecting a string to which it refers;
• combining the selected string with one or more strings of one or more subsequent output data elements to form one or more combined strings;
• finding one or more matching sequences in a sequence of input data elements matching at least part of the one or more combined strings;
• and
• redefining the backward reference to indicate a selected matching sequence, thereby generating a redefined output data element.