docs/geode-native-docs-cpp/serialization/dotnet-serialization/dotnet-data-serialization-options.html.md.erb

---
title:  Data Serialization Options
---

<!--
Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
The ASF licenses this file to You 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.
-->

Built-in .NET types are serialized automatically into the cache and can be retrieved by Java servers and other <%=vars.product_name%> clients. For domain objects that are not simple types, you have three <%=vars.product_name%> serialization options.

The options give good performance and flexibility for data storage, transfers, and language types. The <%=vars.product_name%> options can also improve performance in serializing and deserializing built-in types.

The simplest option is to use perform automatic serialization by registering the <%=vars.product_name%> .NET PDX reflection-based autoserializer in your application. When you have this registered, <%=vars.product_name%> uses it for all domain objects that are not custom serialized.

You can also custom serialize your objects by implementing one of the <%=vars.product_name%> .NET interfaces, `Apache.Geode.Client.IPdxSerializable` or `Apache.Geode.Client.IDataSerializable`.

You also have the option of using default .NET serialization, but you cannot use it unless you also use helper classes. The helper classes you must use are `CacheableObject` and `CacheableObjectXml`.

<%=vars.product_name%> .NET PDX serialization has more bytes in overhead than <%=vars.product_name%> .NET Data serialization, but using PDX serialization helps you avoid the performance costs of deserialization when performing queries. Applications can use `PdxInstances` in functions to avoid the deserialization of entire objects.

<a id="concept_6DC3DD288F6C4190AEA07DEDE76DD867__table_D61A94C4BFBE4712835F632F30BB488E"></a>

<table>
<caption><span class="tablecap">Table 1. Serialization Options—Comparison of Features</span></caption>
<colgroup>
<col width="33%" />
<col width="33%" />
<col width="34%" />
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr class="header">
<th>Capability</th>
<th>IDataSerializable</th>
<th>IPdxSerializable and PDX reflection-based autoserializer</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>Handles multiple versions of domain objects*</p></td>
<td></td>
<td>X</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>Provides single field access on servers of serialized data, without full deserialization. Supported also for OQL queries.</p></td>
<td></td>
<td>X</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>Automatically ported to other languages by <%=vars.product_name%> - no need to program Java-side implementation</p></td>
<td></td>
<td>X</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>Works with <%=vars.product_name%> delta propagation</p></td>
<td>X</td>
<td>X (See explanation below.)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


\*You can mix domain object versions where the differences between versions are the addition and removal of object fields.

By default, you can use <%=vars.product_name%> delta propagation with PDX serialization. However, delta propagation will not work if you have set the <%=vars.product_name%> property read-serialized to "true". In terms of deserialization, to apply a change delta propagation requires a domain class instance and the `fromDelta` method. If you have set read-serialized to true, you will receive an `IPdxInstance` instead of a domain class instance and `IPdxInstance` does not have the `fromDelta` method required for delta propagation. You will also require the Java domain class on the server similar to the you would need the .NET PDX Delta domain class.