libnop is a header-only library for serializing and deserializing C++ data types without external code generators or runtime support libraries. The only mandatory requirement is a compiler that supports the C++14 standard.
Note: This is not an officially supported Google product at this time.
libnop has the following goals:
- Make simple serialization tasks easy and complex tasks tractable.
- Remove the need to use code generators and schema files to describe data types, formats, and protocols: perform these tasks naturally within the C++ language.
- Avoid additional runtime support requirements for serialization.
- Provide contemporary features such as bidirectional binary compatibility, data validation, type safety, and type fungibility.
- Handle intrinsic types, common STL types and containers, and user-defined types with a minimum of effort.
- Produce optimized code that is easy to analyze and profile.
- Avoid internal dynamic memory allocation when possible.
Take a look at Getting Started for an introduction to the library.
Here is a quick series of examples to demonstrate how libnop is used. You can find more examples in the repository under examples/.
#include <iostream> #include <map> #include <sstream> #include <utility> #include <vector> #include <nop/serializer.h> #include <nop/utility/stream_writer.h> int main(int argc, char** argv) { using Writer = nop::StreamWriter<std::stringstream>; nop::Serializer<Writer> serializer; serializer.Write(std::vector<int>{1, 2, 3, 4}); serializer.Write(std::vector<std::string>{"foo", "bar", "baz"}); using MapType = std::map<std::uint32_t, std::pair<std::uint64_t, std::string>>; serializer.Write( MapType{{0, {10, "foo"}}, {1, {20, "bar"}}, {2, {30, "baz"}}}); const std::string data = serializer.writer().stream().str(); std::cout << "Wrote " << data.size() << " bytes." << std::endl; return 0; }#include <cstdint> #include <iostream> #include <sstream> #include <string> #include <vector> #include <nop/serializer.h> #include <nop/structure.h> #include <nop/utility/stream_writer.h> namespace example { struct Person { std::string name; std::uint32_t age_years; std::uint8_t height_inches; std::uint16_t weight_pounds; NOP_STRUCTURE(Person, name, age_years, height_inches, weight_pounds); }; } // namespace example int main(int argc, char** argv) { using Writer = nop::StreamWriter<std::stringstream>; nop::Serializer<Writer> serializer; serializer.Write(example::Person{"John Doe", 37, 72, 180}); serializer.Write(std::vector<example::Person>{ {"John Doe", 37, 72, 180}, {"Jane Doe", 36, 69, 130}}); const std::string data = serializer.writer().stream().str(); std::cout << "Wrote " << data.size() << " bytes." << std::endl; return 0; }#include <array> #include <iostream> #include <sstream> #include <string> #include <nop/serializer.h> #include <nop/structure.h> #include <nop/utility/stream_writer.h> namespace example { // Contrived template type with private members. template <typename T> struct UserDefined { public: UserDefined() = default; UserDefined(std::string label, std::vector<T> vector) : label_{std::move(label)}, vector_{std::move(vector)} {} const std::string label() const { return label_; } const std::vector<T>& vector() const { return vector_; } private: std::string label_; std::vector<T> vector_; NOP_STRUCTURE(UserDefined, label_, vector_); }; } // namespace example int main(int argc, char** argv) { using Writer = nop::StreamWriter<std::stringstream>; nop::Serializer<Writer> serializer; serializer.Write(example::UserDefined<int>{"ABC", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}}); using ArrayType = std::array<example::UserDefined<float>, 2>; serializer.Write( ArrayType{{{"ABC", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}}, {"XYZ", {3.14, 2.72, 23.14}}}}); const std::string data = serializer.writer().stream().str(); std::cout << "Wrote " << data.size() << " bytes." << std::endl; return 0; }