A method for compression of cells of a tabular database (TD), the method may include (i) receiving data elements, by a storage system; (ii) calculating a compressed representation (CR) of the data elements by applying a compression process that includes (ii.a) defining sets based on data element values, (ii.b) associating a set value per set; and (ii.c) generating the CR of the data elements based on differences between the data elements and corresponding set values; (iii) generating compression metadata related to the CR of the data elements, wherein the compression metadata comprises the set values and a mapping between the CR of the data elements and the set values; and (iv) storing, in the TD, the CR of the data elements.