:mod:`Data_Mapping` --- Python Data Mappings
How Python types map to server types
Note
By default, the :py:class:`aerospike.Client` maps the supported types :py:class:`int`, :py:class:`str`, :py:class:`float`, :py:class:`bytearray`, :py:class:`list`, :py:class:`dict` to matching aerospike server types (int, string, double, blob, list, map). When an unsupported type is encountered, the module uses cPickle to serialize and deserialize the data, storing it into a blob of type 'Python' (AS_BYTES_PYTHON).
The functions :func:`~aerospike.set_serializer` and :func:`~aerospike.set_deserializer` allow for user-defined functions to handle serialization, instead. The user provided function will be run instead of cPickle. The serialized data is stored as type (AS_BYTES_BLOB). This type allows the storage of binary data readable by Aerospike Clients in other languages. The serialization config param of :func:`aerospike.client` registers an instance-level pair of functions that handle serialization.
Unless a user specified serializer has been provided, all other types will be stored as Python specific bytes. Python specific bytes may not be readable by Aerospike Clients for other languages.
The following table shows which Python types map directly to Aerospike server types.
| Python Type | server type |
|---|---|
| int | integer |
| long | integer |
| str | string |
| unicode | string |
| float | double |
| dict | map |
| list | list |
| bytearray | blob |
| aerospike.GeoJSON | GeoJSON |
It is possible to nest these datatypes. For example a list may contain a dictionary, or a dictionary may contain a list as a value.
Note
Unless a user specified serializer has been provided, all other types will be stored as Python specific bytes. Python specific bytes may not be readable by Aerospike Clients for other languages.