java-classic-code/serializer/Serializer.java

/*
 * Copyright 2010-2011 the original author or authors.
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */
package com.sdyc.ndmp.protobuf.serializer;

import java.io.Serializable;

/**
 * Basic interface serialization and deserialization of Objects to byte arrays (binary data).
 * <p/>
 * It is recommended that implementations are designed to handle null objects/empty arrays on serialization and deserialization side.
 * Note that Redis does not accept null keys or values but can return null replies (for non existing keys).
 *
 * @author ZhenQin
 */
public interface Serializer<T> extends Serializable {

    /**
     * Serialize the given object to binary data.
     *
     * @param t object to serialize
     * @return the equivalent binary data
     */
    byte[] serialize(T t);

    /**
     * Deserialize an object from the given binary data.
     *
     * @param bytes object binary representation
     * @return the equivalent object instance
     */
    T deserialize(byte[] bytes);
}