Embodiments of the invention include a method and apparatus for encoding data and a system for transmitting and/or storing data, in which the data is encoded and precoded in a manner that does not violate previously established data constraints, such as modulation encoding constraints. The method includes the steps of modulation encoding the data using a modulation code defined by at least one modulation constraint, parity encoding the modulation encoded information, and preceding the encoded information. The preceding step either partially precodes information bits and precodes parity bits, precodes information bits but not parity bits, or precodes both information bits and parity bits in such a manner that does not violate modulation constraints. Also, the parity encoding step can be performed in such a manner that does not violate modulation code constraints.