Serialization

In computer science, in the context of data storage, serialization is the process of translating data structures or object state into a format that can be stored (for example, in a file or memory buffer, or transmitted across a network connection link) and reconstructed later in the same or another computer environment.

Description

When the resulting series of bits is reread according to the serialization format, it can be used to create a semantically identical clone of the original object.

For many complex objects, such as those that make extensive use of references, this process is not straightforward.

Serialization of object-oriented objects does not include any of their associated methods with which they were previously inextricably linked.

This process of serializing an object is also called marshalling an object.

The opposite operation, extracting a data structure from a series of bytes, is deserialization (which is also called unmarshalling).

See also

• Comparison of data serialization formats
• Data structure - a particular way of organizing data in a computer so that it can be used efficiently.
• Hibernate (Java)
• Persistor.NET
• XML Schema
• Basic Encoding Rules
• Google Protocol Buffers
• Wikibase
• YAML

External links

• Serialization @ Wikipedia