The main difference between a Caesar cipher and a transposition cipher lies in how they manipulate the original message.
Caesar Cipher
A Caesar cipher is a substitution cipher where each letter in the plaintext is shifted a fixed number of positions down the alphabet.
- Example: Shifting each letter by 3 positions, "HELLO" becomes "KHOOR".
Transposition Cipher
A transposition cipher is a permutation cipher that rearranges the order of letters in the plaintext without changing the letters themselves.
- Example: Using a simple columnar transposition, "HELLO WORLD" can be rearranged into "HLOEOWRDL".
Key Differences
| Feature | Caesar Cipher | Transposition Cipher |
|---|---|---|
| Method | Substitution | Permutation |
| Manipulation | Letter replacement | Letter rearrangement |
| Key | Shift value (number of positions) | Arrangement pattern |
| Example | "HELLO" becomes "KHOOR" | "HELLO WORLD" becomes "HLOEOWRDL" |
In summary, a Caesar cipher replaces letters with other letters based on a fixed shift, while a transposition cipher rearranges the order of letters without changing them.
