Comparison of data-serialization formats

ASN.1
(XML Encoding Rules)

| {{nobr|}}

| true

| false

| 685230

| 6.8523015e+5

| {{nobr|A to Z}}

true

-42.1e7

A to Z

We said, "no".

| An object (the key is a field name):

true

1.85

Bob Peterson

A data mapping (the key is a data value):

John

3.14

Jane

2.718

CSV{{ref|csvguess|b}}

| null{{ref|guess|a}}
(or an empty element in the row){{ref|guess|a}}

| 1{{ref|guess|a}}
true{{ref|guess|a}}

| 0{{ref|guess|a}}
false{{ref|guess|a}}

| 685230
-685230{{ref|guess|a}}

| 6.8523015e+5{{ref|guess|a}}

| {{nobr|A to Z}}
{{nobr|"We said, ""no""."}}

| true,,-42.1e7,"A to Z"

42,1

A to Z,1,2,3

edn

| nil

| true

| false

| 685230
-685230

| 6.8523015e+5

| "A to Z", "A \"up to\" Z"

| [true nil -42.1e7 "A to Z"]

| {:kw 1, "42" true, "A to Z" [1 2 3]}

Format

! Null

! Boolean true

! Boolean false

Ion

null

null.null

null.bool

null.int

null.float

null.decimal

null.timestamp

null.string

null.symbol

null.blob

null.clob

null.struct

null.list

null.sexp

| true

| false

| 685230
-685230
0xA74AE
0b111010010101110

| 6.8523015e5

| "A to Z"

A to Z

[true, null, -42.1e7, "A to Z"]

{'42': true, 'A to Z': [1, 2, 3]}

Netstrings{{ref|netguess|c}}

| 0:,{{ref|guess|a}}
4:null,{{ref|guess|a}}

| 1:1,{{ref|guess|a}}
4:true,{{ref|guess|a}}

| 1:0,{{ref|guess|a}}
5:false,{{ref|guess|a}}

| 6:685230,{{ref|guess|a}}

| 9:6.8523e+5,{{ref|guess|a}}

| {{nobr|6:A to Z,}}

| 29:4:true,0:,7:-42.1e7,6:A to Z,,

| {{nobr|41:9:2:42,1:1,,25:6:A to Z,12:1:1,1:2,1:3,,,,}}{{ref|guess|a}}

JSON

| null

| true

| false

| 685230
-685230

| 6.8523015e+5

| {{nobr|"A to Z"}}

[true, null, -42.1e7, "A to Z"]

{"42": true, "A to Z": [1, 2, 3]}

OGDL{{Verify source|date=September 2009}}

| null{{ref|guess|a}}

| true{{ref|guess|a}}

| false{{ref|guess|a}}

| 685230{{ref|guess|a}}

| 6.8523015e+5{{ref|guess|a}}

| "A to Z"
'A to Z'
NoSpaces

true

null

-42.1e7

"A to Z"

(true, null, -42.1e7, "A to Z")

true

"A to Z"

42
true
"A to Z", (1, 2, 3)

Format

! Null

! Boolean true

! Boolean false

OpenDDL

| ref {null}

| bool {true}

| bool {false}

| int32 {685230}
int32 {0x74AE}
int32 {0b111010010101110}

| float {6.8523015e+5}

| string {"A to Z"}

| Homogeneous array:

int32 {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

Heterogeneous array:

array
{
bool {true}
ref {null}
float {-42.1e7}
string {"A to Z"}
}

dict
{
value (key = "42") {bool {true}}
value (key = "A to Z") {int32 {1, 2, 3}}
}

PHP serialization format

|N;

|b:1;

|b:0;

|i:685230;
i:-685230;

|d:685230.15;{{ref|phpfloat|d}}
d:INF;
d:-INF;
d:NAN;

|s:6:"A to Z";

|a:4:{i:0;b:1;i:1;N;i:2;d:-421000000;i:3;s:6:"A to Z";}

|Associative array:
a:2:{i:42;b:1;s:6:"A to Z";a:3:{i:0;i:1;i:1;i:2;i:2;i:3;}}
Object:
O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:4:"John";d:3.14;s:4:"Jane";d:2.718;}{{ref|phpfloat|d}}

Pickle (Python)

| N.

| I01\n.

| I00\n.

| I685230\n.

| F685230.15\n.

| S'A to Z'\n.

| (lI01\na(laF-421000000.0\naS'A to Z'\na.

| (dI42\nI01\nsS'A to Z'\n(lI1\naI2\naI3\nas.

Property list
(plain text format){{cite web|url=http://www.gnustep.org/resources/documentation/Developer/Base/Reference/NSPropertyList.html|title=NSPropertyListSerialization class documentation|website=www.gnustep.org|access-date=2009-10-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519164921/http://gnustep.org/resources/documentation/Developer/Base/Reference/NSPropertyList.html|archive-date=2011-05-19|url-status=dead}}

| {{n/a}}

| <*BY>

| <*BN>

| <*I685230>

| <*R6.8523015e+5>

| "A to Z"

| ( <*BY>, <*R-42.1e7>, "A to Z" )

{
"42" = <*BY>;
"A to Z" = ( <*I1>, <*I2>, <*I3> );
}

Property list
(XML format){{cite web|url=https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/|title=Documentation Archive|website=developer.apple.com}}

| {{n/a}}

| 685230

| 6.8523015e+5

| {{nobr|A to Z}}

-42.1e7

A to Z

Protocol Buffers

| {{n/a}}

| true

| false

| 685230
-685230

| 20.0855369

| {{nobr|"A to Z"}} {{nobr|"sdfff2 \000\001\002\377\376\375"}} {{nobr|"q\tqq<>q2&\001\377"}}

field1: "value1"

field1: "value2"

field1: "value3

anotherfield {
foo: 123
bar: 456
}
anotherfield {
foo: 222
bar: 333
}

thing1: "blahblah"

thing2: 18923743

thing3: -44

thing4 {

submessage_field1: "foo"

submessage_field2: false

}

enumeratedThing: SomeEnumeratedValue

thing5: 123.456

[extensionFieldFoo]: "etc"

[extensionFieldThatIsAnEnum]: EnumValue

Format

! Null

! Boolean true

! Boolean false

S-expressions

| NIL
nil

| T
#t{{ref|lispstd|f}}
true

| NIL
#f{{ref|lispstd|f}}
false

| 685230

| 6.8523015e+5

| abc
"abc"
#616263#
3:abc
{MzphYmM=}
|YWJj|

| (T NIL -42.1e7 "A to Z")

| ((42 T) ("A to Z" (1 2 3)))

YAML

| ~
null
Null
NULL{{cite web|url=http://yaml.org/type/null.html |title=Null Language-Independent Type for YAML Version 1.1 |work=YAML.org

|date=2005-01-18 |author1=Oren Ben-Kiki|author2=Clark Evans|author3=Brian Ingerson |access-date=2009-09-12}}

| y
Y
yes
Yes
YES
on
On
ON
true
True
TRUE{{cite web|url=http://yaml.org/type/bool.html |title=Boolean Language-Independent Type for YAML Version 1.1 |publisher=Clark C. Evans |author1=Oren Ben-Kiki|author2=Clark Evans|author3=Brian Ingerson |work=YAML.org |date=2005-01-18 |access-date=2009-09-12}}

| n
N
no
No
NO
off
Off
OFF
false
False
FALSE

| 685230
+685_230
-685230
02472256
0x_0A_74_AE
0b1010_0111_0100_1010_1110
190:20:30{{cite web|url=http://yaml.org/type/int.html |title=Integer Language-Independent Type for YAML Version 1.1 |publisher=Clark C. Evans |author1=Oren Ben-Kiki|author2=Clark Evans|author3=Brian Ingerson |work=YAML.org |date=2005-02-11 |access-date=2009-09-12}}

|6.8523015e+5
685.230_15e+03
685_230.15
190:20:30.15
.inf
-.inf
.Inf
.INF
.NaN
.nan
.NAN{{cite web|url=http://yaml.org/type/float.html |title=Floating-Point Language-Independent Type for YAML Version 1.1 |publisher=Clark C. Evans |author1=Oren Ben-Kiki|author2=Clark Evans|author3=Brian Ingerson |work=YAML.org |date=2005-01-18 |access-date=2009-09-12}}

| A to Z
"A to Z"
'A to Z'

| [y, ~, -42.1e7, "A to Z"]

- y

- -42.1e7

- A to Z

| {"John":3.14, "Jane":2.718}

42: y
A to Z: [1, 2, 3]

XML{{ref|xmlguess|e}} and SOAP

| {{nobr|{{ref|guess|a}}}}

| true

| false

| 685230

| 6.8523015e+5

| {{nobr|A to Z}}

true

-42.1e7

A to Z

true

XML-RPC

| 1

| 0

| 685230

| 6.8523015e+5

| A to Z

-42.1e7

A to Z

{{ordered list

| list-style-type=lower-alpha

| {{note|guess}}Omitted XML elements are commonly decoded by XML data binding tools as NULLs. Shown here is another possible encoding; XML schema does not define an encoding for this datatype.

| {{note|csvguess}}The RFC CSV specification only deals with delimiters, newlines, and quote characters; it does not directly deal with serializing programming data structures.

| {{note|netguess}}The netstrings specification only deals with nested byte strings; anything else is outside the scope of the specification.

| {{note|phpfloat}}PHP will unserialize any floating-point number correctly, but will serialize them to their full decimal expansion. For example, 3.14 will be serialized to {{val|3.140000000000000124344978758017532527446746826171875}}.

| {{note|xmlguess}}XML data bindings and SOAP serialization tools provide type-safe XML serialization of programming data structures into XML. Shown are XML values that can be placed in XML elements and attributes.

| {{note|lispstd}}This syntax is not compatible with the Internet-Draft, but is used by some dialects of Lisp.

}}

Comparison of binary formats

class="wikitable"

style="vertical-align:bottom;"

! Format

! Null

! Booleans