Overview

Serde.NET is a .NET port of the popular serde.rs Rust serialization/deserialization library.

Design

Unlike many other serialization libraries, Serde.NET is multi-format, high performance, source-generated, and fully compatible with app trimming and Native AOT.

Most other .NET serialization libraries rely on run-time reflection to serialize types. Serde instead uses two interfaces, ISerialize, and IDeserialize to allow each type to control how it is serialized. Serde.NET uses source generation to implement these interfaces, so you almost never need to implement them manually. Source generation and interfaces avoids all run-time reflection and its overhead, and provides type and memory safety by ensuring all requested types support serialization. Serde.NET also does not have any unsafe code.

Formats

Serde.NET is a multi-format serialization library, with built-in support for JSON.

Serde.NET is multi-format because it separates how a type serializes itself from the knowledge of the data format. Rather than have individual interfaces for each format, serde uses ISerialize and IDeserialize for all formats. Adding support for new formats comes from implementing two different interfaces: ISerializer and IDeserializer. Since each interface pair is separate, new data format support can be added via NuGet packages.

Supported formats:

• JSON, the flagship format. Bundled with Serde.NET.

Getting started

This full sample is also available in the Github repo.

Steps to get started:

1. Add the serde NuGet package:

$ dotnet add package serde

2. Add the partial modifier to the type you want to serialize/deserialize.
3. Add one of the [GenerateSerde], [GenerateSerialize], or [GenerateDeserialize] attributes.

using Serde;
using Serde.Json;

string output = JsonSerializer.Serialize(new SampleClass());

// prints: {"X":3,"Y":"sample"}
Console.WriteLine(output);

var deserialized = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<SampleClass>(output);

// prints SampleClass { X = 3, Y = sample }
Console.WriteLine(deserialized);

[GenerateSerde]
partial record SampleClass
{
    // automatically includes public properties and fields
    public int X { get; init; } = 3;
    public string Y = "sample";
}