This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract. A method and structure of processing soft information in a block code decoder, includes a soft-input soft-output decoder (910) receiving a length n soft input vector, creating a binary vector Y corresponding to the length n soft input vector, hard decoding each linear function Xi of Y and a test pattern Zi of one or more test patterns, wherein if the hard decoding is successful a codeword produced by the hard decoding of the linear function Xi is added to a set S, removing redundant codewords in S to form a reduced set S′ (520), and an extrinsic value estimator (1140) generating n soft outputs based on c estimated soft output values and (n−c) non-estimated soft output values (530) wherein the c estimated soft output values are computed from one or more positions of the length n soft input vector and one or more codewords in the set S′.