A code that is designed for channel coding, i.e. for encoding information so that a decoder can detect, with a high probability of success, whether an intervening channel has caused an error in the signal.

Error-detecting codes are usually block codes, and are generally employed in a backward error-correction system. The most common error-detecting codes are the cyclic redundancy checks, of which the simple parity check is a technologically important case.

See also coding bounds, coding theory, error-correcting code, Hamming distance, Shannon’s model.