Serialization

• In serialization, objects and data structures residing in memory are transformed to stream of bits, so that they can be written to disk (for example) or sent over network

• Basically, serialize function transforms data structure to string, which can be then sent to the recipient

• Recipient can then deserialize the string back to data structure

• Examples of serialization formats

  • JSON

  • YAML

  • XML

Libraries

Python

• pickle

  • saves data as byte stream

References

• Serialization - A Crash Course (Youtube)

• A Gentle Introduction to Serialization for Python (https://machinelearningmastery.com/)