1. A method for compressing at least one floating point number, comprising the steps of: obtaining said at least one floating point number represented using one or more bits to indicate a sign of said at least one floating point number, one or more bits to indicate an exponent at a given base and one or more bits to indicate a significand of said at least one floating point number, wherein said significand has a length equal to a number of bits between a most significant bit of said significand and a least significant bit of said significand having a predefined binary value; applying a predefined default prediction algorithm and a plurality of other distinct prediction algorithms to said obtained at least one floating point number to generate a corresponding plurality of predictions; evaluating a compression metric over a collection of floating point numbers, including said at least one floating point number, for said predefined default prediction algorithm and said plurality of other distinct prediction algorithms; and based on said compression metric, encoding one of: said at least one floating point number by encoding, as a single code, the exponent and the length of a residual generated by said predefined default prediction algorithm; or said collection of floating point numbers by encoding, as single codes, the exponent and the lengths of the residuals generated by an alternate prediction algorithm from among said plurality of other distinct prediction algorithms.