Counting Constrained Codewords in Binary Linear Codes via Fourier Expansions

In this paper, we consider the problem of computing the sizes of subcodes of binary linear codes, all of whose codewords need to satisfy an additional property, which we call a constraint. Using a simple identity from the Fourier analysis of Boolean functions, we transform our counting problem into a question about the structure of the dual code. We illustrate the utility of our method in providing explicit values or numerical algorithms for our counting problem, from the somewhat surprising observation that for different constraints of interest, the Fourier transform of the indicator function of the constraint is efficiently computable.