Turn custom python objects into strings and vice-versa.
- no extra code to write in most cases
- supports json
- supports nested objects
- no dependencies outside of python's library (only pytest for developing)
- ability to add methods to control serializing and deserializing
- type hints and works with mypy
- objects like tuples are automatically turned into lists
- only supports json right now
- can't handle circular references
- if an object has references in many places, it will be present in the json repeatedly and after deserializing will be separate objects
- Because of this, it cannot handle linked lists or similar interconnected data structures well
- stores
__dict__
of the object, so classes using__slots__
will likely require overriding theserialize
method anddeserialize
classmethod.
Extend Serializable
class A(Serializable):
...
or use the make_serializable
decorator
@make_serializable
class A:
...
serialize using
serialize(object_to_serialize)
and deserialize using
deserialize(stringified_object)
Refer to Simple Example
In the case that the standard method doesn't cut it, it is possible to add custom serializing and deserializing methods to a class
@make_serializable
class A:
def __init__(self, x):
self.x = x
def serialize(self) -> dict:
return {'x': self.x}
@classmethod
def deserialize(cls, data: dict) -> 'A':
return A(data['x'])
__init__
is by default not called for deserialized objects- Because it needs to create the object and then copy over all the values of
__dict__
, it doesn't know the arguments used in__init__
. Thus the object will be created with__new__
which avoids calling__init__
.
- Because it needs to create the object and then copy over all the values of
Things to possibly add:
- other data formats like xml or the like
- support for objects with circular references