Effective Serialization In Go: JSON, Protocol Buffers and More

Course details

Serialization—taking data structures from the language and converting them to a sequence of bytes—is something every developer encounters at one point or another. In this course, instructor Miki Tebeka teaches you how to work effectively with serialization in Go. This course is targeted to advanced Go developers, and starts with a look at some serialization best practices. Miki then looks at some Go-specific formats as well as JSON. He also shows you how to work with protocol buffers—a powerful binary format—and finishes with a tour of some other popular serialization formats like XML, CSV, and SQL. Each chapter ends with a challenge, so you can test your serialization skills as you go.

Learning objectives
Describe why we need serialization.
Explain what to consider when picking a format.
Review common formats.
Use interfaces for serialization.

Concepts

Introduction

Effective serialization in Go
What you should know
Working with Codespaces

Serialization Overview

Why do we need serialization
Picking a format
General rules
Formats overview

Go-Specific Formats

String representation
encoding.TextMarshaler
encoding gob
Challenge - User database
Solution - User database

Working with JSON

encoding json API
Custom marshaling
Zero vs. missing values
Handling dynamic types
Streaming JSON
Challenge - Marshal metrics
Solution - Marshal metrics

Working with Protocol Buffers

Protocol buffers overview
Generating code
Using the generated code
Working with time
Emitting JSON
Challenge - Encode RideEnd to a file
Solution - Encode a RideEnd to a file

Other Serialization Formats

YAML and TOML
XML
CSV
SQL
Challenge - ETL
Solution - ETL

Conclusion

Next steps