Explain working of Encoders?

Encoding is the process of forming an encoded representation of a set of inputs, and it is the converse of the decoding operation. An encoder is a combinational network that generates an n-bit binary code that uniquely identifies the one out of m activated inputs (0 ≤ m ≤ 2ⁿ - 1). Figure (a) shows the block diagram of an 8-element to 3-bit encoder. The truth table is given in Figure (b). Notice that only one of the eight inputs is allowed to be activated at any given time. The logic diagram for the 8-to-3 encoder is shown in Figure 6(c).