What does "serialization" mean in programming?
serialization is one of the most common terms in software development. This guide explains what it means, how it is used in practice, and why it matters, with real examples from the developer world.
Definition
Converting an in-memory data structure (an object, a list, a record) into a format that can be stored or transmitted: JSON, XML, binary, CSV. The reverse process is deserialization. Serialization is what happens when you call JSON.stringify() or Python's json.dumps().
Example
"We serialize the order object to JSON before sending it to the message broker. The consumer deserializes it back to an object."
Related terms
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