What is Serialization?

java oop serialization marshalling
edward picture edward · Mar 11, 2009 · Viewed 86.2k times · Source

I am getting started with Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) and would like to know: what is the meaning of serialization in OOP parlance?

Answer

Andrew Barnett picture Andrew Barnett · Mar 11, 2009

Serialization is the process of turning an object in memory into a stream of bytes so you can do stuff like store it on disk or send it over the network.

Deserialization is the reverse process: turning a stream of bytes into an object in memory.

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