Serialization

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\( \newcommand{\P}[]{\unicode{xB6}} \newcommand{\AA}[]{\unicode{x212B}} \newcommand{\empty}[]{\emptyset} \newcommand{\O}[]{\emptyset} \newcommand{\Alpha}[]{Α} \newcommand{\Beta}[]{Β} \newcommand{\Epsilon}[]{Ε} \newcommand{\Iota}[]{Ι} \newcommand{\Kappa}[]{Κ} \newcommand{\Rho}[]{Ρ} \newcommand{\Tau}[]{Τ} \newcommand{\Zeta}[]{Ζ} \newcommand{\Mu}[]{\unicode{x039C}} \newcommand{\Chi}[]{Χ} \newcommand{\Eta}[]{\unicode{x0397}} \newcommand{\Nu}[]{\unicode{x039D}} \newcommand{\Omicron}[]{\unicode{x039F}} \DeclareMathOperator{\sgn}{sgn} \def\oiint{\mathop{\vcenter{\mathchoice{\huge\unicode{x222F}\,}{\unicode{x222F}}{\unicode{x222F}}{\unicode{x222F}}}\,}\nolimits} \def\oiiint{\mathop{\vcenter{\mathchoice{\huge\unicode{x2230}\,}{\unicode{x2230}}{\unicode{x2230}}{\unicode{x2230}}}\,}\nolimits} \)

Serialization - different ways of storing data.

Text-based

Encode data as strings.
Pros are that it's human readable and widely supported. You can dump JSON without third-party libraries in most languages.
Cons are that it takes up much more space/bandwidth and that binary data must first be converted into base64 which can be slow.

  • XML
  • JSON
  • YAML - a superset of JSON which uses spaces and is a bit easier to read

Binary

  • Protocol Buffers, also known as ProtoBuf, is a popular serialization library by Google.
  • flatbuffers is another serialization library by Google meant for high performance.
  • Cap'n Proto, a zero-encoding serialization library by a former ProtoBuf author.