# Entropy contribution from variable length segment of a sequence

If I have a sequence which is comprised of one of 10 prefixes, one of 5 suffixes and a variable length middle, how do I compute the entropy of the sequence?

Using Shannon-Entropy $Hs= -\Sigma_{i=1}^{m} p_i ln(p_i)$

I can compute the entropy contributions from the 10 starting and 5 ending sequences using this sum, but I am unsure how to computer the variable length section. If the distribution of length is:

• 0=0.5
• 1=0.25
• 2=0.2
• 3=0.05

And each character can be A-F say, for 16 possibility with equal probability how do I calculate the number of bits of entropy? If I simply use the sum above, I am underestimating the contribution from the longer sequences, which have more possibilities. Do I also need to ignore the $p0$ term, as $0.5ln(0.5)$ isn't actually adding any additional characters to the sequence.

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If all $16$ possibilities has an equal probability, that entropy must $\ln 16\approx 2.77$ its; $H\sim \max= \sum[ \frac1n \ln(\frac1n) ]$. Adding new information with "equal" probability is not add extra information into entropy.