serde

Table of Contents

Serialization and Deserialization

https://serde.rs/

Serialize & Deserialize

To make a Rust structure (de)serializable:

#[macro_use] 

#[derive(Debug, Serialize, Deserialize)]
struct Move {
    id: usize,
    direction: Direction,
}

#[derive(Debug, Serialize, Deserialize)]
enum Direction { North, South, East, West }

fn main() {}

Formats

Serde supports a number of formats, such as:

  • JSON

  • CBOR

  • YAML

  • TOML

  • BSON

  • MessagePack

  • …​ More!

Did you enjoy that acronym salad?

Serialize

To JSON:

#[macro_use] 

use Direction::*;

fn main() {
    let action = Move { id: 1, direction: West };
    let payload = serde_json::to_string(&action);
    println!("{:?}", payload);
}

#[derive(Debug, Serialize, Deserialize)]
struct Move {
    id: usize,
    direction: Direction,
}

#[derive(Debug, Serialize, Deserialize)]
enum Direction { North, South, East, West }

Deserialize

From JSON:

fn main() {
    let payload = "{\"id\":1,\"direction\":\"West\"}";
    let action = serde_json::from_str::<Move>(&payload);
    println!("{:?}", action);
}

#[derive(Debug, Serialize, Deserialize)]
struct Move {
    id: usize,
    direction: Direction,
}

#[derive(Debug, Serialize, Deserialize)]
enum Direction { North, South, East, West }

Transcode

use serde_transcode::transcode;

fn main() {
    let payload = "{\"id\":1,\"direction\":\"West\"}";
    let mut buffer = String::new();
    {
        let mut ser = toml::Serializer::new(&mut buffer);
        let mut de = serde_json::Deserializer::from_str(&payload);
        transcode(&mut de, &mut ser)
            .unwrap();
    }
    println!("{:?}", buffer);
}

Attributes

serde has a large number of attributes you can utilize:

#[serde(deny_unknown_fields)] // Be extra strict
struct Move {
    #[serde(default)] // Call usize::default()
    id: usize,
    #[serde(rename = "dir")] // Use a different name
    direction: Direction,
}

https://serde.rs/attributes.html