Serializing data in C

Question

Hey all,

Please tell me how to serialize data (like binary files) in C. And, how can i send this serialized data over sockets, so that it can be successfully received by the corresponding Java client.

Actually i want to convert this binary file into byte array so that it can be send over the sockets.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

For interoperating between C and Java, you could use Google's Protocol Buffers (the Google reference implementation supports C++ and Java, and there's third party implementations for plain C).

Answer 2

Have you considered using a communication format such as JSON instead of raw byte RPC

For information on libraries which provide JSON for C & Java (More are available on the JSON site)

1. Stack Overflow on C JSON implementation:
2. JsonGlib (GNOME C JSON library referenced in the above link)
3. JSON in Java

The advantages of using JSON include:

1. Language independence
2. Easy for machines to parse & generate
3. Easy for humans to read and write (Protocol Buffers does NOT offer this)

JSON would be ideal in the case that you need to transmit object instances. If however you are truly dealing with flat binary files (that are not serialized objects) then Protocol Buffers by Google as suggested by caf will most likely be better suited (especially if they are large files).

NB: JSON requires that your byte content be encoded into a BASE64 string for transfer.

Answer 3

Both send()/recv() in C and java.lang.Socket operate seamlessly on byte arrays. So, if everything you need is just sending plain byte arrays, without any structure-specific encoding, you don't really need any serialization.