Data Serialization: A Concise Guide to JSON, YAML, TOML, and More

As a developer, you’ve most likely encountered serialization, perhaps with realizing it. It’s happens whenever you read config files, use APIs, or save application state. So what is it exactly? Serialization is the process of converting data from its in-memory representation into a format that can be stored or transmitted. The reverse, reading that stored format back into usable data, is called deserialization. A common example of this process is copying text to your clipboard from a rich text editor. The editor has all sorts of in-memory data about that text, font size, bold state, color, line height etc. When you paste it into a plain text app like Notepad, it gets stripped down to just the characters. That stripping process is a crude form of serialization, converting a rich in-memory object into a simpler transmittable format. The format you choose matters. It affects how readable your code and config files are, how easy it is to debug issues, how well your tools and libraries supp