As mentioned above, there are a vast number of error-correcting codes that are actually block codes.
The first error-correcting code was the [[Hamming(7,4)|Hamming(7,4)-code]] code, developed by [[Richard W. Hamming]] in 1950. This code transforms a message consisting of 4 bits into a codeword of 7 bits by adding 3 parity bits. Hence this code is a block code. It turns out that it is also a linear code and that it has distance 3. In the shorthand notation above, this means that the Hamming(7,4)- code is a <math>[7,4,3]_2</math>- code.
[[Reed–Solomon code]]s are a family of <math>[n,k,d]_q</math>- codes with <math>d=n-k+1</math> and <math>q</math> being a [[prime power]]. [[Rank error-correcting code|Rank codes]] are family of <math>[n,k,d]_q</math>- codes with <math>d \leq n-k+1</math>. [[Hadamard code]]s are a family of <math>[n,k,d]_2</math>- codes with <math>n=2^{k-1}</math> and <math>d=2^{k-2}</math>.
== Error detection and correction properties ==
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