What is the difference between serialization and deserialization in Rust?

What is the difference between serialization and deserialization in Rust?

Serialization in Rust is the process of converting data structures into a format that can be easily stored or transmitted, like JSON or binary. Deserialization is the reverse process, where that data is converted back into a usable data structure.

Can you give me an example of serialization in Rust?

Sure! Here's a simple example using the serde library:

use serde::{Serialize, Deserialize};

#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
struct Person {
    name: String,
    age: u32,
}

fn main() {
    let person = Person { name: String::from("Alice"), age: 30 };
    let serialized = serde_json::to_string(&person).unwrap();
    println!("Serialized: {}", serialized);
}

What about deserialization? How would I do that?

For deserialization, you can use the serde_json::from_str function. Here's how you can deserialize the JSON string back into a Person object:

let json_data = r#"{"name":"Alice","age":30}"#;
let deserialized: Person = serde_json::from_str(json_data).unwrap();
println!("Deserialized: {:?}", deserialized);