Serialization And Deserialization In C# Using Protobuf-net.dll

[ProtoContract(SkipConstructor = true)]
public class Project
{
    [ProtoMember(1)]
    public int ID { get; set; }

    [ProtoMember(2)]
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

Serialization

Serialization is the process of converting an object into a stream of bytes to store the object or transmit it to memory, database, or file. Its aim is to save the state of an object in order to be able to recreate it in the future when needed. The below code snippet defines a method (ProtoSerialize()) that receives an object. Then, it is called Serialize(), which converts the object to a stream of bytes through the MemoryStream object.

public static byte[] ProtoSerialize<T>(T record) where T : class
{
    if (record == null) return null;

    try
    {
        using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
        {
            Serializer.Serialize(stream, record);
            return stream.ToArray();
        }
    }
    catch
    {
        // Log error
        throw;
    }
}

The following figure shows the result after Serialization. It converts the Project object to a bytes array through the ProtoSerialize() method.

Figure 2. Result after Serialization

Deserialization

Deserialization is the process of converting streams of bytes into an object. It is the reverse process of Serialization (discussed above). The code snippet below defines the Deserialize method(ProtoDeserialize()) with a byte array as a parameter. Then, it converts the byte array to a MemoryStream object. Next, it is called Deserialize(), which passes the MemoryStream object as a parameter and returns an actual object.

public static T ProtoDeserialize<T>(byte[] data) where T : class
{
    if (data == null) return null;

    try
    {
        using (var stream = new MemoryStream(data))
        {
            return Serializer.Deserialize<T>(stream);
        }
    }
    catch
    {
        // Log error
        throw;
    }
}

The following figure shows the result after Deserialization. It converts the bytes array to a Project object through the ProtoDeserialize() method.

Figure 3. Result after Deserialization

Advantages

• Very fast processing.
• It is hard to decode without knowing the schema.
• Very useful for internal APIs.
• Easy Language Interoperability.
• Generic request/response allows more flexibility.

Performance comparison

Figure 4. Serialization Performance graph of libraries

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed serialization and deserialization using protobuf-net dll. We can perform the same functionality in different ways, such as DataContractSerializer, JSON.NET, JavaScriptSerializer, etc. However, protobuf-net provides better performance than other methods. So use protobuf-net dll whenever you develop internal APIs and perform serialization/deserialization.