= Serialization
{wiki}
<Serialization> maps structured program data into a representation that can be stored or transmitted, often a sequence of <bytes>. <Deserialization> reconstructs data according to that format. A useful format must specify which values and distinctions it preserves; writing an object's display text is not automatically a reversible encoding. <JSON> is one textual interchange format, with ordered <arrays> and objects whose member names are strings.<The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data Interchange Format>[RFC8259, §§1–2 and4–5]{ref}
In <Python>, let `value = {"coords": [2, 5], "ready": True}`. Calling `json.dumps(value, sort_keys=True, separators=(",", ":"), allow_nan=False)` produces `{"coords":[2,5],"ready":true}`. Encoding this <string data type>[string] with <UTF-8> gives 29 <bytes>; `json.loads` reconstructs a value equal to `value`. Here <serialization> connects a nested runtime value, text and an explicit <character encoding>.<Python 3.14 documentation>[json module, Basic Usage; JSONEncoder and JSONDecoder conversion tables]{ref}
The preservation claim is deliberately specific. If `coords` originally contains the <tuple> `(2, 5)`, the default <JSON> round trip produces a list instead. Equality of the chosen first example therefore proves neither preservation of every runtime type nor preservation of object identity. Format design requires deciding which such distinctions matter.
Back to article page
