C++ – Serialize/ Deserialize C++ classes

Talking about serialization, the boost serialization API comes to my mind. As for transmitting the serialized data over the net, I'd either use Berkeley sockets or the asio library.

Edit:
If you want to serialize your objects to a byte array, you can use the boost serializer in the following way (taken from the tutorial site):

#include <boost/archive/binary_oarchive.hpp>
#include <boost/archive/binary_iarchive.hpp>
class gps_position
{
private:
    friend class boost::serialization::access;
    template<class Archive>
    void serialize(Archive & ar, const unsigned int version)
    {
        ar & degrees;
        ar & minutes;
        ar & seconds;
    }
    int degrees;
    int minutes;
    float seconds;

public:
    gps_position(){};
    gps_position(int d, int m, float s) :
    degrees(d), minutes(m), seconds(s)
    {}
};

Actual serialization is then pretty easy:

#include <fstream>
std::ofstream ofs("filename.dat", std::ios::binary);

    // create class instance
    const gps_position g(35, 59, 24.567f);

    // save data to archive
    {
        boost::archive::binary_oarchive oa(ofs);
        // write class instance to archive
        oa << g;
        // archive and stream closed when destructors are called
    }

Deserialization works in an analogous manner.

There are also mechanisms which let you handle serialization of pointers (complex data structures like tress etc are no problem), derived classes and you can choose between binary and text serialization. Besides all STL containers are supported out of the box.

Depends on your priorities.

If performance is your absolute driving characteristic, then by all means use the fastest one. Just make sure you have a full understanding of the differences before you make a choice

• Unlike serialize() you need to add extra parameter to keep UTF-8 characters untouched: json_encode($array, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE) (otherwise it converts UTF-8 characters to Unicode escape sequences).
• JSON will have no memory of what the object's original class was (they are always restored as instances of stdClass).
• You can't leverage __sleep() and __wakeup() with JSON
• By default, only public properties are serialized with JSON. (in PHP>=5.4 you can implement JsonSerializable to change this behavior).
• JSON is more portable

And there's probably a few other differences I can't think of at the moment.

A simple speed test to compare the two

<?php

ini_set('display_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

// Make a big, honkin test array
// You may need to adjust this depth to avoid memory limit errors
$testArray = fillArray(0, 5);

// Time json encoding
$start = microtime(true);
json_encode($testArray);
$jsonTime = microtime(true) - $start;
echo "JSON encoded in $jsonTime seconds\n";

// Time serialization
$start = microtime(true);
serialize($testArray);
$serializeTime = microtime(true) - $start;
echo "PHP serialized in $serializeTime seconds\n";

// Compare them
if ($jsonTime < $serializeTime) {
    printf("json_encode() was roughly %01.2f%% faster than serialize()\n", ($serializeTime / $jsonTime - 1) * 100);
}
else if ($serializeTime < $jsonTime ) {
    printf("serialize() was roughly %01.2f%% faster than json_encode()\n", ($jsonTime / $serializeTime - 1) * 100);
} else {
    echo "Impossible!\n";
}

function fillArray( $depth, $max ) {
    static $seed;
    if (is_null($seed)) {
        $seed = array('a', 2, 'c', 4, 'e', 6, 'g', 8, 'i', 10);
    }
    if ($depth < $max) {
        $node = array();
        foreach ($seed as $key) {
            $node[$key] = fillArray($depth + 1, $max);
        }
        return $node;
    }
    return 'empty';
}