Object Serialization in Python

A Deep Dive into Pickle, JSON, and MessagePack

Serialization is a crucial part of data engineering and machine learning workflows. It allows us to save complex objects like machine learning models, data structures, or configurations into a format that can be stored and later restored. This makes our work reproducible and sharable, essential traits for any serious data science project.

In Python, several libraries are designed to handle serialization, each with its unique strengths and use cases. In this article, we’ll explore the top three object serialization libraries in Python: pickle, json, and msgpack. We'll delve into their features, use cases, and provide practical code examples to help you decide which library best suits your needs.

You can find the code used in this post below 👇

portfolio/python/serialization.ipynb at main · smortezah/portfolio

Contents

1. Pickle
2. JSON
3. MessagePack
4. Conclusion

1. Pickle