Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are described for performing data compression in a manner that does not require software to make a call to hardware to close a compressed data block, thereby reducing computational overhead. In response to a request from software to data compression hardware for a data encoding, the hardware may return the data encoding as well as an end-of-block symbol encoding value and bit length. The hardware may load the end-of-block symbol encoding value and bit length into a different area in the returned structure such that the software has direct access to the value. When the software determines that a block should be closed, the software may retrieve the end-of-block symbol and insert it into the block without needing to make a call to hardware. The software may then make a call to the hardware to request a new data encoding for subsequent compressed data blocks.