What Is Serialization?

I often get confused when trying to remember the difference between serialization and deserialization. In this post, I will try to explain it in a simple, easy-to-remember way.

Serialization is the process of translating data into a format that can be stored or transmitted with the ability to reconstruct that data later.

The opposite of this is called deserialization. So, translating serialized data back into a clone of the original object.

Often, the format of serialized data is a stream of bytes. This allows the data to be reconstructed (aka deserialized) in other environments that may not have the same capabilities as the system where the data was originally serialized.

This concept is applicable to all programming languages. Here are some examples to help solidify your understanding.

An Example in Java

If you work in Java, you may be familiar with the Gson library. This is a Java serialization/deserialization library built by Google. It provides two methods that allow you to serialize or deserialize data, toJson() and fromJson().

When you call toJson(), you are serializing a Java object into a JSON object.

When you call fromJson(), you are deserializing a JSON object back into a Java object.

So, deserialization is reconstructing data in a format that is usable in the current context.

An Example in Javascript

If you have used JSON.parse() or JSON.stringify() before, then congratulations! You are familiar with this concept in Javascript.

When you call JSON.stringify(), you are serializing the data.

When you call JSON.parse(), you are deserializing the data to be used as an object.