What is the purpose and principle of data serialization mechanisms?

Serialization of data is the process of converting a data structure or object into a format that can be stored or transmitted (for example, to a file, over a network). The main purpose of serialization is to enable saving the state of an object and its subsequent restoration (deserialization).

The serialization principle involves breaking down the object into a byte sequence or a textual representation (e.g., JSON, XML, binary format), which can be written or transmitted. During deserialization, this sequence is converted back into an object with the same data.

In Python, serialization is often done using the pickle module (for binary serialization) or json (for text). For example:

import json
data = {'name': 'Alice', 'age': 30}
serialized = json.dumps(data)  # convert to JSON string
print(serialized)

# To restore:
restored = json.loads(serialized)
print(restored)