Serialization and Deserialization in Python

Serialization in Python is the process of converting a Python object into a byte stream, which can then be easily stored or transmitted.

Deserialization is the reverse process, where the byte stream is converted back into a Python object.

In python, pickle module is used for this.

• Serialization (Pickling): Converts Python objects (like lists, dictionaries, or custom objects) into a byte stream.
• Deserialization (Unpickling): Converts the byte stream back into the original Python object.

Some of the pickle module functions :

• pickle.dump(obj, file, protocol=None, *, fix_imports=True, buffer_callback=None) : Serializes obj and writes it to the open file object file.
• pickle.dumps(obj, protocol=None, *, fix_imports=True, buffer_callback=None) : Serializes obj to a byte stream and returns it.
• pickle.loads(bytes_object, *, fix_imports=True, encoding="ASCII", errors="strict", buffers=None) : Deserializes bytes_object (a byte stream) to a Python object.

Serializing and writing to file

import pickle


data = {'key': 'value', 'number': 42}
with open('data.pkl', 'wb') as file:
    pickle.dump(data, file)

Reading and Deserializing from a File

import pickle

with open('data.pkl', 'rb') as file:
    loaded_data = pickle.load(file)
print(loaded_data)