The invention relates to a method of encoding user data into codevectors and to a corresponding method of decoding codevectors into user data. In order to be able to use the same ECC decoder for decoding of more than one type of data a method of encoding is proposed comprising the steps of: a) generating a first block of a fixed first number of data symbols by taking a fixed second number, being smaller than said first number, of user data symbols, and a fixed third number of dummy data symbols, and by arranging said user data symbols and said dummy data symbols in a predetermined order, b) encoding said first block of data symbols using an ECC encoder (2) to obtain a codeword having a fixed number of symbols, said codeword comprising said first block of data symbols and a second block of a fixed forth number of parity symbols, and (c) generating a codevector by selecting a fifth predetermined number of user data symbols and a sixth predetermined number of parity symbols from said codeword, the sum of said fifth and sixth number being predetermined and smaller than the sum of said second and forth number.