less_retarded_wiki/implicit.md

Implicit

Implicit means something that's assumed unless stated otherwise; it is the opposite of explicit. Though not the same, the term is similar to default; for example an implicit/default background color of some image format may be defined as white, meaning that unless background color is stated, we suppose the background to be white. Implicit values may be important e.g. for saving space -- imagine we have some dataset in which 90% of values are zero; then it is convenient to state zero to be the implicit value and not store such values, by which we'll save 90% of space.