Characteristic vector and weight distribution of a linear code

Abstract: We develop an algorithm for computing the weight distribution of a linear $[n,k]$ code over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. We represent the codes by their characteristic vector with respect to a given generator matrix and a special type of a generator matrix of the k-dimensional simplex code. This characteristic vector is the input data of our algorithms. The complexity of the presented algorithms is O(kq^k).