def decodelzw(encoded):
    """Decompress LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) encoded TIFF strip (byte string).

    The strip must begin with a CLEAR code and end with an EOI code.

    This is an implementation of the LZW decoding algorithm described in (1).
    It is not compatible with old style LZW compressed files like quad-lzw.tif.

    """
    unpack = struct.unpack

    if sys.version[0] == '2':
        newtable = [chr(i) for i in range(256)]
    else:
        newtable = [bytes([i]) for i in range(256)]
    newtable.extend((0, 0))

    def next_code():
        """Return integer of `bitw` bits at `bitcount` position in encoded."""
        start = bitcount // 8
        s = encoded[start:start+4]
        try:
            code = unpack('>I', s)[0]
        except Exception:
            code = unpack('>I', s + b'\x00'*(4-len(s)))[0]
        code = code << (bitcount % 8)
        code = code & mask
        return code >> shr

    switchbitch = {  # code: bit-width, shr-bits, bit-mask
        255: (9, 23, int(9*'1'+'0'*23, 2)),
        511: (10, 22, int(10*'1'+'0'*22, 2)),
        1023: (11, 21, int(11*'1'+'0'*21, 2)),
        2047: (12, 20, int(12*'1'+'0'*20, 2)), }
    bitw, shr, mask = switchbitch[255]
    bitcount = 0

    if len(encoded) < 4:
        raise ValueError("strip must be at least 4 characters long")

    if next_code() != 256:
        raise ValueError("strip must begin with CLEAR code")

    code = oldcode = 0
    result = []
    while True:
        code = next_code()  # ~5% faster when inlining this function
        bitcount += bitw
        if code == 257:  # EOI
            break
        if code == 256:  # CLEAR
            table = newtable[:]
            lentable = 258
            bitw, shr, mask = switchbitch[255]
            code = next_code()
            bitcount += bitw
            if code == 257:  # EOI
                break
            result.append(table[code])
        else:
            if code < lentable:
                decoded = table[code]
                newcode = table[oldcode] + decoded[:1]
            else:
                newcode = table[oldcode]
                newcode += newcode[:1]
                decoded = newcode
            result.append(decoded)
            table.append(newcode)
            lentable += 1
        oldcode = code
        if lentable in switchbitch:
            bitw, shr, mask = switchbitch[lentable]

    if code != 257:
        raise ValueError("unexpected end of stream (code %i)" % code)

    return b''.join(result)