CppSerialization

February 28, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

License Release
Linux (clang) Linux (gcc) MacOS
Windows (Cygwin) Windows (MSYS2) Windows (MinGW) Windows (Visual Studio)

C++ Serialization Library provides functionality to serialize/deserialize objects using different protocols such as Cap'n'Proto, FastBinaryEncoding, Flatbuffers, Protobuf, SimpleBinaryEncoding, zpp::bits, JSON.

Performance comparison based on the Domain model with one account, one wallet and three orders total size of 128 bytes:

ProtocolMessage sizeSerialization timeDeserialization time
Cap'n'Proto208 bytes247 ns184 ns
FastBinaryEncoding234 bytes77 ns84 ns
FlatBuffers280 bytes272 ns81 ns
Protobuf120 bytes322 ns351 ns
SimpleBinaryEncoding138 bytes35 ns52 ns
zpp::bits130 bytes34 ns37 ns
JSON301 bytes696 ns291 ns

CppSerialization API reference

Contents

Features

Requirements

Optional:

How to build?

Linux: install required packages

sudo apt-get install -y binutils-dev uuid-dev

pip3 install gil

Setup repository

git clone https://github.com/chronoxor/CppSerialization.git
cd CppSerialization
gil update

Linux

cd build
./unix.sh

MacOS

cd build
./unix.sh

Windows (Cygwin)

cd build
unix.bat

Windows (MSYS2)

cd build
unix.bat

Windows (MinGW)

cd build
mingw.bat

Windows (Visual Studio)

cd build
vs.bat

Domain model

The first step you should perform to use CppSerialization library is to provide a domain model (aka business objects). Domain model is a set of structures or classes that related to each other and might be aggregated in some hierarchy.

There is an example domain model which describes Account-Balance-Orders relation of some abstract trading platform:

#include <string>
#include <vector>

namespace TradeProto {

enum class OrderSide : uint8_t
{
    BUY,
    SELL
};

enum class OrderType : uint8_t
{
    MARKET,
    LIMIT,
    STOP
};

struct Order
{
    int Id;
    char Symbol[10];
    OrderSide Side;
    OrderType Type;
    double Price;
    double Volume;

    Order() : Order(0, "<\?\?\?>", OrderSide::BUY, OrderType::MARKET, 0.0, 0.0) {}
    Order(int id, const std::string& symbol, OrderSide side, OrderType type, double price, double volume)
    {
        Id = id;
        std::memcpy(Symbol, symbol.c_str(), std::min(symbol.size() + 1, sizeof(Symbol)));
        Side = side;
        Type = type;
        Price = price;
        Volume = volume;
    }
};

struct Balance
{
    char Currency[10];
    double Amount;

    Balance() : Balance("<\?\?\?>", 0.0) {}
    Balance(const std::string& currency, double amount)
    {
        std::memcpy(Currency, currency.c_str(), std::min(currency.size() + 1, sizeof(Currency)));
        Amount = amount;
    }
};

struct Account
{
    int Id;
    std::string Name;
    Balance Wallet;
    std::vector<Order> Orders;

    Account() : Account(0, "<\?\?\?>", "<\?\?\?>", 0.0) {}
    Account(int id, const char* name, const char* currency, double amount) : Wallet(currency, amount)
    {
        Id = id;
        Name = name;
    }
};

} // namespace TradeProto

The next step you should provide serialization methods for the domain model.

Cap'n'Proto serialization

Cap'n'Proto serialization is based on Cap'n'Proto library.

Cap'n'Proto schema

Cap'n'Proto serialization starts with describing a model schema. For our domain model the schema will be the following:

# Unique file ID, generated by 'capnp id'
@0xd4b6e00623bed170;

using Cxx = import "/capnp/c++.capnp";
$Cxx.namespace("Trade::capnproto");

enum OrderSide
{
    buy @0;
    sell @1;
}

enum OrderType
{
    market @0;
    limit @1;
    stop @2;
}

struct Order
{
    id @0 : Int32;
    symbol @1 : Text;
    side @2 : OrderSide;
    type @3 : OrderType;
    price @4 : Float64 = 0.0;
    volume @5 : Float64 = 0.0;
}

struct Balance
{
    currency @0 : Text;
    amount @1 : Float64 = 0.0;
}

struct Account
{
    id @0 : Int32;
    name @1 : Text;
    wallet @2 : Balance;
    orders @3 : List(Order);
}

Cap'n'Proto schema compilation

The next step is a schema compilation using 'capnpc' utility which will create a generated code for required programming language.

The following command will create a C++ generated code:

capnp compile -I capnproto/c++/src -oc++ trade.capnp

It is possible to use capnp_generate_cpp() in CMakeLists.txt to generate code using 'cmake' utility:

capnp_generate_cpp(CAPNP_HEADERS CAPNP_SOURCES trade.capnp)

As the result 'trade.capnp.h' and 'trade.capnp.c++' files will be generated.

Cap'n'Proto serialization methods

Finally you should extend your domain model with a Cap'n'Proto serialization methods:

#include "capnp/serialize.h"
#include "capnproto/trade.capnp.h"

#include <algorithm>

namespace TradeProto {

struct Order
{
    ...

    // Cap'n'Proto serialization

    void Serialize(Trade::capnproto::Order::Builder& builder)
    {
        builder.setId(Id);
        builder.setSymbol(Symbol);
        builder.setSide((Trade::capnproto::OrderSide)Side);
        builder.setType((Trade::capnproto::OrderType)Type);
        builder.setPrice(Price);
        builder.setVolume(Volume);
    }

    void Deserialize(const Trade::capnproto::Order::Reader& reader)
    {
        Id = reader.getId();
        std::string symbol = reader.getSymbol();
        std::memcpy(Symbol, symbol.c_str(), std::min(symbol.size() + 1, sizeof(Symbol)));
        Side = (OrderSide)reader.getSide();
        Type = (OrderType)reader.getType();
        Price = reader.getPrice();
        Volume = reader.getVolume();
    }

    ...
};

struct Balance
{
    ...

    // Cap'n'Proto serialization

    void Serialize(Trade::capnproto::Balance::Builder& builder)
    {
        builder.setCurrency(Currency);
        builder.setAmount(Amount);
    }

    void Deserialize(const Trade::capnproto::Balance::Reader& reader)
    {
        std::string currency = reader.getCurrency();
        std::memcpy(Currency, currency.c_str(), std::min(currency.size() + 1, sizeof(Currency)));
        Amount = reader.getAmount();
    }

    ...
};

struct Account
{
    ...

    // Cap'n'Proto serialization

    void Serialize(Trade::capnproto::Account::Builder& builder)
    {
        builder.setId(Id);
        builder.setName(Name);
        auto wallet = builder.initWallet();
        Wallet.Serialize(wallet);
        auto orders = builder.initOrders((unsigned)Orders.size());
        unsigned index = 0;
        for (auto& order : Orders)
        {
            auto o = orders[index++];
            order.Serialize(o);
        }
    }

    void Deserialize(const Trade::capnproto::Account::Reader& reader)
    {
        Id = reader.getId();
        Name = reader.getName().cStr();
        Wallet.Deserialize(reader.getWallet());
        Orders.clear();
        for (auto o : reader.getOrders())
        {
            Order order;
            order.Deserialize(o);
            Orders.emplace_back(order);
        }
    }

    ...
};

} // namespace TradeProto

Cap'n'Proto example

Here comes the usage example of Cap'n'Proto serialize/deserialize functionality:

#include "../proto/trade.h"

#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    // Create a new account with some orders
    TradeProto::Account account(1, "Test", "USD", 1000);
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(1, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::BUY, TradeProto::OrderType::MARKET, 1.23456, 1000));
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(2, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::SELL, TradeProto::OrderType::LIMIT, 1.0, 100));
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(3, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::BUY, TradeProto::OrderType::STOP, 1.5, 10));

    // Serialize the account to the Cap'n'Proto buffer
    capnp::MallocMessageBuilder output;
    Trade::capnproto::Account::Builder builder = output.initRoot<Trade::capnproto::Account>();
    account.Serialize(builder);
    kj::VectorOutputStream buffer;
    writeMessage(buffer, output);

    // Show original and Cap'n'Proto serialized sizes
    std::cout << "Original size: " << account.size() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Cap'n'Proto size: " << buffer.getArray().size() << std::endl;

    // Deserialize the account from the Cap'n'Proto buffer
    kj::ArrayInputStream array(buffer.getArray());
    capnp::InputStreamMessageReader input(array);
    TradeProto::Account deserialized;
    deserialized.Deserialize(input.getRoot<Trade::capnproto::Account>());

    // Show account content
    std::cout << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Id = " << deserialized.Id << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Name = " << deserialized.Name << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Wallet.Currency = " << deserialized.Wallet.Currency << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Wallet.Amount = " << deserialized.Wallet.Amount << std::endl;
    for (auto& order : deserialized.Orders)
    {
        std::cout << "Account.Order => Id: " << order.Id
            << ", Symbol: " << order.Symbol
            << ", Side: " << (int)order.Side
            << ", Type: " << (int)order.Type
            << ", Price: " << order.Price
            << ", Volume: " << order.Volume
            << std::endl;
    }

    return 0;
}

Output of the example is the following:

Original size: 128
Cap'n'Proto size: 208

Account.Id = 1
Account.Name = Test
Account.Wallet.Currency = USD
Account.Wallet.Amount = 1000
Account.Order => Id: 1, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 0, Type: 0, Price: 1.23456, Volume: 1000
Account.Order => Id: 2, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 1, Type: 1, Price: 1, Volume: 100
Account.Order => Id: 3, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 0, Type: 2, Price: 1.5, Volume: 10

Cap'n'Proto performance

Cap'n'Proto serialization performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.136 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:05:35 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:05:35 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: Cap'n'Proto-Serialize
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: Cap'n'Proto-Serialize
Average time: 247 ns/op
Minimal time: 244 ns/op
Maximal time: 254 ns/op
Total time: 4.762 s
Total operations: 19242126
Total bytes: 4.484 GiB
Operations throughput: 4040127 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 961.717 MiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 208
        OriginalSize: 128
===============================================================================

Cap'n'Proto deserialization performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.116 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:06:37 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:06:37 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: Cap'n'Proto-Deserialize
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: Cap'n'Proto-Deserialize
Average time: 184 ns/op
Minimal time: 183 ns/op
Maximal time: 184 ns/op
Total time: 4.959 s
Total operations: 26913647
Total bytes: 6.262 GiB
Operations throughput: 5426756 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 1.267 GiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 208
        OriginalSize: 128
===============================================================================

FastBinaryEncoding serialization

FastBinaryEncoding serialization is based on FastBinaryEncoding library.

FastBinaryEncoding schema

FastBinaryEncoding serialization starts with describing a model schema. For our domain model the schema will be the following:

package trade

enum OrderSide : byte
{
    buy;
    sell;
}

enum OrderType : byte
{
    market;
    limit;
    stop;
}

struct Order
{
    [key] int32 id;
    string symbol;
    OrderSide side;
    OrderType type;
    double price = 0.0;
    double volume = 0.0;
}

struct Balance
{
    [key] string currency;
    double amount = 0.0;
}

struct Account
{
    [key] int32 id;
    string name;
    Balance wallet;
    Order[] orders;
}

FastBinaryEncoding schema compilation

The next step is a schema compilation using 'fbec' utility which will create a generated code for required programming language.

The following command will create a C++ generated code:

fbec --cpp --input=trade.fbe --output=.

It is possible to use add_custom_command() in CMakeLists.txt to generate code using 'cmake' utility:

add_custom_command(TARGET example POST_BUILD COMMAND fbec --cpp --input=trade.fbe --output=.)

As the result 'fbe.h' and 'trade.h' files will be generated.

FastBinaryEncoding serialization methods

Finally you should extend your domain model with a FastBinaryEncoding serialization methods:

#include "fbe/trade_models.h"

#include <algorithm>

namespace TradeProto {

struct Order
{
    ...

    // FastBinaryEncoding serialization

    template <class TBuffer>
    void Serialize(FBE::FieldModel<TBuffer, trade::Order>& model)
    {
        size_t model_begin = model.set_begin();
        model.id.set(Id);
        model.symbol.set(Symbol);
        model.side.set((trade::OrderSide)Side);
        model.type.set((trade::OrderType)Type);
        model.price.set(Price);
        model.volume.set(Volume);
        model.set_end(model_begin);
    }

    template <class TBuffer>
    void Deserialize(const FBE::FieldModel<TBuffer, trade::Order>& model)
    {
        size_t model_begin = model.get_begin();
        model.id.get(Id);
        model.symbol.get(Symbol);
        trade::OrderSide side;
        model.side.get(side);
        Side = (OrderSide)side;
        trade::OrderType type;
        model.type.get(type);
        Type = (OrderType)type;
        model.price.get(Price);
        model.volume.get(Volume);
        model.get_end(model_begin);
    }

    ...
};

struct Balance
{
    ...

    // FastBinaryEncoding serialization

    template <class TBuffer>
    void Serialize(FBE::FieldModel<TBuffer, trade::Balance>& model)
    {
        size_t model_begin = model.set_begin();
        model.currency.set(Currency);
        model.amount.set(Amount);
        model.set_end(model_begin);
    }

    template <class TBuffer>
    void Deserialize(const FBE::FieldModel<TBuffer, trade::Balance>& model)
    {
        size_t model_begin = model.get_begin();
        model.currency.get(Currency);
        model.amount.get(Amount);
        model.get_end(model_begin);
    }

    ...
};

struct Account
{
    ...

    // FastBinaryEncoding serialization

    template <class TBuffer>
    void Serialize(FBE::FieldModel<TBuffer, trade::Account>& model)
    {
        size_t model_begin = model.set_begin();
        model.id.set(Id);
        model.name.set(Name);
        Wallet.Serialize(model.wallet);
        auto order_model = model.orders.resize(Orders.size());
        for (auto& order : Orders)
        {
            order.Serialize(order_model);
            order_model.fbe_shift(order_model.fbe_size());
        }
        model.set_end(model_begin);
    }

    template <class TBuffer>
    void Deserialize(const FBE::FieldModel<TBuffer, trade::Account>& model)
    {
        size_t model_begin = model.get_begin();
        model.id.get(Id);
        model.name.get(Name);
        Wallet.Deserialize(model.wallet);
        Orders.clear();
        for (size_t i = 0; i < model.orders.size(); ++i)
        {
            Order order;
            order.Deserialize(model.orders[i]);
            Orders.emplace_back(order);
        }
        model.get_end(model_begin);
    }

    ...
};

} // namespace TradeProto

FastBinaryEncoding example

Here comes the usage example of FastBinaryEncoding serialize/deserialize functionality:

#include "../proto/trade.h"

#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    // Create a new account with some orders
    TradeProto::Account account(1, "Test", "USD", 1000);
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(1, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::BUY, TradeProto::OrderType::MARKET, 1.23456, 1000));
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(2, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::SELL, TradeProto::OrderType::LIMIT, 1.0, 100));
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(3, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::BUY, TradeProto::OrderType::STOP, 1.5, 10));

    // Serialize the account to the FBE buffer
    FBE::trade::AccountModel<FBE::WriteBuffer> writer;
    size_t model_begin = writer.create_begin();
    account.Serialize(writer.model);
    size_t serialized = writer.create_end(model_begin);
    assert(writer.verify() && "Model is broken!");

    // Show original and FBE serialized sizes
    std::cout << "Original size: " << account.size() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "FBE size: " << serialized << std::endl;

    // Deserialize the account from the FBE buffer
    TradeProto::Account deserialized;
    FBE::trade::AccountModel<FBE::ReadBuffer> reader;
    reader.attach(writer.buffer());
    assert(reader.verify() && "Model is broken!");
    deserialized.Deserialize(reader.model);

    // Show account content
    std::cout << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Id = " << deserialized.Id << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Name = " << deserialized.Name << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Wallet.Currency = " << deserialized.Wallet.Currency << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Wallet.Amount = " << deserialized.Wallet.Amount << std::endl;
    for (auto& order : deserialized.Orders)
    {
        std::cout << "Account.Order => Id: " << order.Id
            << ", Symbol: " << order.Symbol
            << ", Side: " << (int)order.Side
            << ", Type: " << (int)order.Type
            << ", Price: " << order.Price
            << ", Volume: " << order.Volume
            << std::endl;
    }

    return 0;
}

Output of the example is the following:

Original size: 128
FBE size: 234

Account.Id = 1
Account.Name = Test
Account.Wallet.Currency = USD
Account.Wallet.Amount = 1000
Account.Order => Id: 1, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 0, Type: 0, Price: 1.23456, Volume: 1000
Account.Order => Id: 2, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 1, Type: 1, Price: 1, Volume: 100
Account.Order => Id: 3, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 0, Type: 2, Price: 1.5, Volume: 10

FastBinaryEncoding performance

FastBinaryEncoding serialization performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.179 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:08:14 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:08:14 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: FastBinaryEncoding-Serialize
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: FastBinaryEncoding-Serialize
Average time: 77 ns/op
Minimal time: 77 ns/op
Maximal time: 81 ns/op
Total time: 5.204 s
Total operations: 66877702
Total bytes: 17.501 GiB
Operations throughput: 12849579 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 3.369 GiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 234
        OriginalSize: 128
===============================================================================

FastBinaryEncoding deserialization performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.194 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:10:03 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:10:03 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: FastBinaryEncoding-Deserialize
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: FastBinaryEncoding-Deserialize
Average time: 84 ns/op
Minimal time: 82 ns/op
Maximal time: 85 ns/op
Total time: 5.271 s
Total operations: 62074518
Total bytes: 16.239 GiB
Operations throughput: 11775531 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 3.081 GiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 234
        OriginalSize: 128
===============================================================================

FlatBuffers serialization

FlatBuffers serialization is based on FlatBuffers library.

FlatBuffers schema

FlatBuffers serialization starts with describing a model schema. For our domain model the schema will be the following:

namespace Trade.flatbuf;

enum OrderSide : byte
{
    buy,
    sell
}

enum OrderType : byte
{
    market,
    limit,
    stop
}

table Order
{
    id : int;
    symbol : string;
    side : OrderSide;
    type : OrderType;
    price : double = 0.0;
    volume : double = 0.0;
}

table Balance
{
    currency : string;
    amount : double = 0.0;
}

table Account
{
    id : int;
    name : string;
    wallet : Balance;
    orders : [Order];
}

root_type Account;

FlatBuffers schema compilation

The next step is a schema compilation using 'flatc' utility which will create a generated code for required programming language.

The following command will create a C++ generated code:

flatc --cpp --scoped-enums -o . trade.fbs

It is possible to use add_custom_command() in CMakeLists.txt to generate code using 'cmake' utility:

add_custom_command(TARGET example POST_BUILD COMMAND flatc --cpp --scoped-enums -o . trade.fbs)

As the result 'domain_generated.h' file will be generated.

FlatBuffers serialization methods

Finally you should extend your domain model with a FlatBuffers serialization methods:

#include "flatbuffers/trade_generated.h"

#include <algorithm>

namespace TradeProto {

struct Order
{
    ...

    // FlatBuffers serialization

    flatbuffers::Offset<Trade::flatbuf::Order> Serialize(flatbuffers::FlatBufferBuilder& builder)
    {
        return Trade::flatbuf::CreateOrderDirect(builder, Id, Symbol, (Trade::flatbuf::OrderSide)Side, (Trade::flatbuf::OrderType)Type, Price, Volume);
    }

    void Deserialize(const Trade::flatbuf::Order& value)
    {
        Id = value.id();
        std::string symbol = value.symbol()->str();
        std::memcpy(Symbol, symbol.c_str(), std::min(symbol.size() + 1, sizeof(Symbol)));
        Side = (OrderSide)value.side();
        Type = (OrderType)value.type();
        Price = value.price();
        Volume = value.volume();
    }

    ...
};

struct Balance
{
    ...

    // FlatBuffers serialization

    flatbuffers::Offset<Trade::flatbuf::Balance> Serialize(flatbuffers::FlatBufferBuilder& builder)
    {
        return Trade::flatbuf::CreateBalanceDirect(builder, Currency, Amount);
    }

    void Deserialize(const Trade::flatbuf::Balance& value)
    {
        std::string currency = value.currency()->str();
        std::memcpy(Currency, currency.c_str(), std::min(currency.size() + 1, sizeof(Currency)));
        Amount = value.amount();
    }

    ...
};

struct Account
{
    ...

    // FlatBuffers serialization

    flatbuffers::Offset<Trade::flatbuf::Account> Serialize(flatbuffers::FlatBufferBuilder& builder)
    {
        auto wallet = Wallet.Serialize(builder);
        std::vector<flatbuffers::Offset<Trade::flatbuf::Order>> orders;
        for (auto& order : Orders)
            orders.emplace_back(order.Serialize(builder));
        return Trade::flatbuf::CreateAccountDirect(builder, Id, Name.c_str(), wallet, &orders);
    }

    void Deserialize(const Trade::flatbuf::Account& value)
    {
        Id = value.id();
        Name = value.name()->str();
        Wallet.Deserialize(*value.wallet());
        Orders.clear();
        for (auto o : *value.orders())
        {
            Order order;
            order.Deserialize(*o);
            Orders.emplace_back(order);
        }
    }

    ...
};

} // namespace TradeProto

FlatBuffers example

Here comes the usage example of FlatBuffers serialize/deserialize functionality:

#include "../proto/trade.h"

#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    // Create a new account with some orders
    TradeProto::Account account(1, "Test", "USD", 1000);
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(1, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::BUY, TradeProto::OrderType::MARKET, 1.23456, 1000));
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(2, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::SELL, TradeProto::OrderType::LIMIT, 1.0, 100));
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(3, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::BUY, TradeProto::OrderType::STOP, 1.5, 10));

    // Serialize the account to the FlatBuffer buffer
    flatbuffers::FlatBufferBuilder builder;
    builder.Finish(account.Serialize(builder));

    // Show original and FlatBuffer serialized sizes
    std::cout << "Original size: " << account.size() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "FlatBuffer size: " << builder.GetSize() << std::endl;

    // Deserialize the account from the FlatBuffer buffer
    TradeProto::Account deserialized;
    deserialized.Deserialize(*Trade::flatbuf::GetAccount(builder.GetBufferPointer()));

    // Show account content
    std::cout << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Id = " << deserialized.Id << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Name = " << deserialized.Name << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Wallet.Currency = " << deserialized.Wallet.Currency << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Wallet.Amount = " << deserialized.Wallet.Amount << std::endl;
    for (auto& order : deserialized.Orders)
    {
        std::cout << "Account.Order => Id: " << order.Id
            << ", Symbol: " << order.Symbol
            << ", Side: " << (int)order.Side
            << ", Type: " << (int)order.Type
            << ", Price: " << order.Price
            << ", Volume: " << order.Volume
            << std::endl;
    }

    return 0;
}

Output of the example is the following:

Original size: 128
FlatBuffer size: 280

Account.Id = 1
Account.Name = Test
Account.Wallet.Currency = USD
Account.Wallet.Amount = 1000
Account.Order => Id: 1, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 0, Type: 0, Price: 1.23456, Volume: 1000
Account.Order => Id: 2, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 1, Type: 1, Price: 1, Volume: 100
Account.Order => Id: 3, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 0, Type: 2, Price: 1.5, Volume: 10

FlatBuffers performance

FlatBuffers serialization performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.270 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:11:16 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:11:16 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: FlatBuffers-Serialize
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: FlatBuffers-Serialize
Average time: 272 ns/op
Minimal time: 272 ns/op
Maximal time: 273 ns/op
Total time: 4.947 s
Total operations: 18131562
Total bytes: 5.689 GiB
Operations throughput: 3664742 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 1.150 GiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 280
        OriginalSize: 128
===============================================================================

FlatBuffers deserialization performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.323 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:13:23 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:13:23 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: FlatBuffers-Deserialize
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: FlatBuffers-Deserialize
Average time: 81 ns/op
Minimal time: 77 ns/op
Maximal time: 81 ns/op
Total time: 5.320 s
Total operations: 65603873
Total bytes: 20.541 GiB
Operations throughput: 12329743 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 3.878 GiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 280
        OriginalSize: 128
===============================================================================

Protobuf serialization

Protobuf serialization is based on Protobuf library.

Protobuf schema

Protobuf serialization starts with describing a model schema. For our domain model the schema will be the following:

syntax = "proto3";
package Trade.protobuf;

enum OrderSide
{
    buy = 0;
    sell = 1;
}

enum OrderType
{
    market = 0;
    limit = 1;
    stop = 2;
}

message Order
{
    int32 id = 1;
    string symbol = 2;
    OrderSide side = 3;
    OrderType type = 4;
    double price = 5;
    double volume = 6;
}

message Balance
{
    string currency = 1;
    double amount = 2;
}

message Account
{
    int32 id = 1;
    string name = 2;
    Balance wallet = 3;
    repeated Order orders = 4;
}

Protobuf schema compilation

The next step is a schema compilation using 'protoc' utility which will create a generated code for required programming language.

The following command will create a C++ generated code:

protoc --proto_path=. --cpp_out=. trade.proto

It is possible to use add_custom_command() in CMakeLists.txt to generate code using 'cmake' utility:

add_custom_command(TARGET example POST_BUILD COMMAND protoc --proto_path=. --cpp_out=. trade.proto)

As the result 'trade.pb.h' and 'trade.pb.cc' files will be generated.

Protobuf serialization methods

Finally you should extend your domain model with a FlatBuffers serialization methods:

#include "protobuf/trade.pb.h"

#include <algorithm>

namespace TradeProto {

struct Order
{
    ...

    // Protobuf serialization

    Trade::protobuf::Order& Serialize(Trade::protobuf::Order& value)
    {
        value.set_id(Id);
        value.set_symbol(Symbol);
        value.set_side((Trade::protobuf::OrderSide)Side);
        value.set_type((Trade::protobuf::OrderType)Type);
        value.set_price(Price);
        value.set_volume(Volume);
        return value;
    }

    void Deserialize(const Trade::protobuf::Order& value)
    {
        Id = value.id();
        std::string symbol = value.symbol();
        std::memcpy(Symbol, symbol.c_str(), std::min(symbol.size() + 1, sizeof(Symbol)));
        Side = (OrderSide)value.side();
        Type = (OrderType)value.type();
        Price = value.price();
        Volume = value.volume();
    }

    ...
};

struct Balance
{
    ...

    // Protobuf serialization

    Trade::protobuf::Balance& Serialize(Trade::protobuf::Balance& value)
    {
        value.set_currency(Currency);
        value.set_amount(Amount);
        return value;
    }

    void Deserialize(const Trade::protobuf::Balance& value)
    {
        std::string currency = value.currency();
        std::memcpy(Currency, currency.c_str(), std::min(currency.size() + 1, sizeof(Currency)));
        Amount = value.amount();
    }

    ...
};

struct Account
{
    ...

    // Protobuf serialization

    Trade::protobuf::Account& Serialize(Trade::protobuf::Account& value)
    {
        value.set_id(id);
        value.set_name(Name);
        value.set_allocated_wallet(&Wallet.Serialize(*value.wallet().New(value.GetArena())));
        for (auto& order : Orders)
            order.Serialize(*value.add_orders());
        return value;
    }

    void Deserialize(const Trade::protobuf::Account& value)
    {
        Id = value.id();
        Name = value.name();
        Wallet.Deserialize(value.wallet());
        Orders.clear();
        for (int i = 0; i < value.orders_size(); ++i)
        {
            Order order;
            order.Deserialize(value.orders(i));
            Orders.emplace_back(order);
        }
    }

    ...
};

} // namespace TradeProto

Protobuf example

Here comes the usage example of Protobuf serialize/deserialize functionality:

#include "../proto/trade.h"

#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    // Create a new account with some orders
    TradeProto::Account account(1, "Test", "USD", 1000);
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(1, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::BUY, TradeProto::OrderType::MARKET, 1.23456, 1000));
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(2, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::SELL, TradeProto::OrderType::LIMIT, 1.0, 100));
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(3, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::BUY, TradeProto::OrderType::STOP, 1.5, 10));

    // Serialize the account to the Protobuf buffer
    Trade::protobuf::Account output;
    account.Serialize(output);
    auto buffer = output.SerializeAsString();

    // Show original and Protobuf serialized sizes
    std::cout << "Original size: " << account.size() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Protobuf size: " << buffer.size() << std::endl;

    // Deserialize the account from the Protobuf buffer
    Trade::protobuf::Account input;
    input.ParseFromString(buffer);
    TradeProto::Account deserialized;
    deserialized.Deserialize(input);

    // Show account content
    std::cout << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Id = " << deserialized.Id << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Name = " << deserialized.Name << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Wallet.Currency = " << deserialized.Wallet.Currency << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Wallet.Amount = " << deserialized.Wallet.Amount << std::endl;
    for (auto& order : deserialized.Orders)
    {
        std::cout << "Account.Order => Id: " << order.Id
            << ", Symbol: " << order.Symbol
            << ", Side: " << (int)order.Side
            << ", Type: " << (int)order.Type
            << ", Price: " << order.Price
            << ", Volume: " << order.Volume
            << std::endl;
    }

    // Delete all global objects allocated by Protobuf
    google::protobuf::ShutdownProtobufLibrary();

    return 0;
}

Output of the example is the following:

Original size: 128
Protobuf size: 120

Account.Id = 1
Account.Name = Test
Account.Wallet.Currency = USD
Account.Wallet.Amount = 1000
Account.Order => Id: 1, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 0, Type: 0, Price: 1.23456, Volume: 1000
Account.Order => Id: 2, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 1, Type: 1, Price: 1, Volume: 100
Account.Order => Id: 3, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 0, Type: 2, Price: 1.5, Volume: 10

Protobuf performance

Protobuf serialization performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.339 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:15:26 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:15:26 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: Protobuf-Serialize
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: Protobuf-Serialize
Average time: 322 ns/op
Minimal time: 322 ns/op
Maximal time: 323 ns/op
Total time: 4.989 s
Total operations: 15458464
Total bytes: 2.074 GiB
Operations throughput: 3098338 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 425.503 MiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 120
        OriginalSize: 128
===============================================================================

Protobuf deserialization performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.248 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:16:37 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:16:37 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: Protobuf-Deserialize
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: Protobuf-Deserialize
Average time: 351 ns/op
Minimal time: 351 ns/op
Maximal time: 352 ns/op
Total time: 4.959 s
Total operations: 14111610
Total bytes: 1.913 GiB
Operations throughput: 2845506 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 390.789 MiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 120
        OriginalSize: 128
===============================================================================

SimpleBinaryEncoding serialization

SimpleBinaryEncoding serialization is based on SimpleBinaryEncoding library.

SimpleBinaryEncoding schema

SimpleBinaryEncoding serialization starts with describing a model schema. For our domain model the schema will be the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<sbe:messageSchema xmlns:sbe="http://fixprotocol.io/2016/sbe" package="sbe" id="1" version="1" semanticVersion="5.2" description="Trade schema" byteOrder="littleEndian">
    <types>
        <composite name="messageHeader" description="Message identifiers and length of message root">
            <type name="blockLength" primitiveType="uint16"/>
            <type name="templateId" primitiveType="uint16"/>
            <type name="schemaId" primitiveType="uint16"/>
            <type name="version" primitiveType="uint16"/>
        </composite>
        <composite name="groupSizeEncoding" description="Repeating group dimensions">
            <type name="blockLength" primitiveType="uint16"/>
            <type name="numInGroup" primitiveType="uint16"/>
        </composite>
        <composite name="varStringEncoding">
            <type name="length" primitiveType="uint32" maxValue="1073741824"/>
            <type name="varData" primitiveType="uint8" length="0" characterEncoding="UTF-8"/>
        </composite>
    </types>
    <types>
        <enum name="OrderSide" encodingType="uint8">
            <validValue name="buy">0</validValue>
            <validValue name="sell">1</validValue>
        </enum>
        <enum name="OrderType" encodingType="uint8">
            <validValue name="market">0</validValue>
            <validValue name="limit">1</validValue>
            <validValue name="stop">2</validValue>
        </enum>
        <composite name="Order">
            <type name="id" primitiveType="int32"/>
            <type name="symbol" primitiveType="char" length="10" characterEncoding="UTF-8"/>
            <ref name="side" type="OrderSide"/>
            <ref name="type" type="OrderType"/>
            <type name="price" primitiveType="double"/>
            <type name="volume" primitiveType="double"/>
        </composite>
        <composite name="Balance">
            <type name="currency" primitiveType="char" length="10" characterEncoding="UTF-8"/>
            <type name="amount" primitiveType="double"/>
        </composite>
        <type name="AccountId" primitiveType="int32"/>
    </types>
    <sbe:message name="Account" id="1">
        <field name="id" id="1" type="AccountId"/>
        <field name="wallet" id="2" type="Balance"/>
        <group name="orders" id="3" dimensionType="groupSizeEncoding">
            <field name="order" id="4" type="Order"/>
        </group>
        <data name="name" id="5" type="varStringEncoding"/>
    </sbe:message>
</sbe:messageSchema>

SimpleBinaryEncoding schema compilation

The next step is a schema compilation using 'sbe' utility which will create a generated code for required programming language.

The following command will create a C++ generated code:

java -Dsbe.target.language=cpp -jar sbe-all-1.29.0.jar trade.sbe.xml

As the result required C++ header files will be generated.

SimpleBinaryEncoding serialization methods

Finally you should extend your domain model with a SimpleBinaryEncoding serialization methods:

#include "fbe/trade_models.h"

#include <algorithm>

namespace TradeProto {

struct Order
{
    ...

    // SimpleBinaryEncoding serialization

    void Serialize(sbe::Order& model)
    {
        model.id(Id);
        model.putSymbol(Symbol);
        model.side((sbe::OrderSide::Value)Side);
        model.type((sbe::OrderType::Value)Type);
        model.price(Price);
        model.volume(Volume);
    }

    void Deserialize(sbe::Order& model)
    {
        Id = model.id();
        model.getSymbol(Symbol, sizeof(Symbol));
        Side = (OrderSide)model.side();
        Type = (OrderType)model.type();
        Price = model.price();
        Volume = model.volume();
    }

    ...
};

struct Balance
{
    ...

    // SimpleBinaryEncoding serialization

    void Serialize(sbe::Balance& model)
    {
        model.putCurrency(Currency);
        model.amount(Amount);
    }

    void Deserialize(sbe::Balance& model)
    {
        model.getCurrency(Currency, sizeof(Currency));
        Amount = model.amount();
    }

    ...
};

struct Account
{
    ...

    // SimpleBinaryEncoding serialization

    void Serialize(sbe::Account& model)
    {
        model.id(Id);
        model.putName(Name);
        Wallet.Serialize(model.wallet());
        auto orders = model.ordersCount((uint16_t)Orders.size());
        for (auto& order : Orders)
            order.Serialize(orders.next().order());
    }

    void Deserialize(sbe::Account& model)
    {
        Id = model.id();
        Name = model.getNameAsString();
        Wallet.Deserialize(model.wallet());
        Orders.clear();
        auto orders = model.orders();
        for (int i = 0; i < orders.count(); ++i)
        {
            Order order;
            order.Deserialize(orders.next().order());
            Orders.emplace_back(order);
        }
    }

    ...
};

} // namespace TradeProto

SimpleBinaryEncoding example

Here comes the usage example of SimpleBinaryEncoding serialize/deserialize functionality:

#include "../proto/trade.h"

#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    // Create a new account with some orders
    TradeProto::Account account(1, "Test", "USD", 1000);
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(1, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::BUY, TradeProto::OrderType::MARKET, 1.23456, 1000));
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(2, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::SELL, TradeProto::OrderType::LIMIT, 1.0, 100));
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(3, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::BUY, TradeProto::OrderType::STOP, 1.5, 10));

    // Serialize the account to the SBE buffer
    char buffer[1024];
    sbe::MessageHeader header;
    header.wrap(buffer, 0, 1, sizeof(buffer))
       .blockLength(sbe::Account::sbeBlockLength())
       .templateId(sbe::Account::sbeTemplateId())
       .schemaId(sbe::Account::sbeSchemaId())
       .version(sbe::Account::sbeSchemaVersion());
    sbe::Account message;
    message.wrapForEncode(buffer, header.encodedLength(), sizeof(buffer));
    account.Serialize(message);

    // Show original and SBE serialized sizes
    std::cout << "Original size: " << account.size() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "SBE size: " << header.encodedLength() + message.encodedLength() << std::endl;

    // Deserialize the account from the SBE buffer
    header.wrap(buffer, 0, 1, sizeof(buffer));
    int actingVersion = header.version();
    int actingBlockLength = header.blockLength();
    message.wrapForDecode(buffer, header.encodedLength(), actingBlockLength, actingVersion, sizeof(buffer));
    TradeProto::Account deserialized;
    deserialized.Deserialize(message);

    // Show account content
    std::cout << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Id = " << deserialized.Id << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Name = " << deserialized.Name << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Wallet.Currency = " << deserialized.Wallet.Currency << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Wallet.Amount = " << deserialized.Wallet.Amount << std::endl;
    for (auto& order : deserialized.Orders)
    {
        std::cout << "Account.Order => Id: " << order.Id
            << ", Symbol: " << order.Symbol
            << ", Side: " << (int)order.Side
            << ", Type: " << (int)order.Type
            << ", Price: " << order.Price
            << ", Volume: " << order.Volume
            << std::endl;
    }

    return 0;
}

Output of the example is the following:

Original size: 128
SBE size: 138

Account.Id = 1
Account.Name = Test
Account.Wallet.Currency = USD
Account.Wallet.Amount = 1000
Account.Order => Id: 1, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 0, Type: 0, Price: 1.23456, Volume: 1000
Account.Order => Id: 2, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 1, Type: 1, Price: 1, Volume: 100
Account.Order => Id: 3, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 0, Type: 2, Price: 1.5, Volume: 10

SimpleBinaryEncoding performance

SimpleBinaryEncoding serialization performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.311 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:17:49 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:17:49 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: SimpleBinaryEncoding-Serialize
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: SimpleBinaryEncoding-Serialize
Average time: 35 ns/op
Minimal time: 35 ns/op
Maximal time: 35 ns/op
Total time: 5.926 s
Total operations: 168709597
Total bytes: 26.020 GiB
Operations throughput: 28467195 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 4.399 GiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 138
        OriginalSize: 128
===============================================================================

SimpleBinaryEncoding deserialization performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.261 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:19:22 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:19:22 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: SimpleBinaryEncoding-Deserialize
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: SimpleBinaryEncoding-Deserialize
Average time: 52 ns/op
Minimal time: 52 ns/op
Maximal time: 52 ns/op
Total time: 5.432 s
Total operations: 104359134
Total bytes: 16.097 GiB
Operations throughput: 19211002 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 2.985 GiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 138
        OriginalSize: 128
===============================================================================

zpp::bits serialization

zpp::bits serialization is based on zpp::bits library.

zpp::bits serialization methods

Finally you should extend your domain model with a zpp::bits serialization methods:

#include "fbe/trade_models.h"

#include <algorithm>

namespace TradeProto {

struct Order
{
    ...

    // zpp::bits serialization

    using serialize = zpp::bits::members<6>;

    ...
};

struct Balance
{
    ...

    // zpp::bits serialization

    using serialize = zpp::bits::members<2>;

    ...
};

struct Account
{
    ...

    // zpp::bits serialization

    using serialize = zpp::bits::members<4>;

    ...
};

} // namespace TradeProto

zpp::bits example

Here comes the usage example of zpp::bits serialize/deserialize functionality:

#include "../proto/trade.h"

#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    // Create a new account with some orders
    TradeProto::Account account(1, "Test", "USD", 1000);
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(1, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::BUY, TradeProto::OrderType::MARKET, 1.23456, 1000));
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(2, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::SELL, TradeProto::OrderType::LIMIT, 1.0, 100));
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(3, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::BUY, TradeProto::OrderType::STOP, 1.5, 10));

    // Serialize the account to the zpp::bits buffer
    auto [buffer, out] = zpp::bits::data_out();
    (void) out(account);

    // Show original and zpp::bits serialized sizes
    std::cout << "Original size: " << account.size() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "zpp::bits size: " << buffer.size() << std::endl;

    // Deserialize the account from the zpp::bits buffer
    TradeProto::Account deserialized;
    (void) zpp::bits::in{buffer}(deserialized);

    // Show account content
    std::cout << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Id = " << deserialized.Id << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Name = " << deserialized.Name << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Wallet.Currency = " << deserialized.Wallet.Currency << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Wallet.Amount = " << deserialized.Wallet.Amount << std::endl;
    for (const auto& order : deserialized.Orders)
    {
        std::cout << "Account.Order => Id: " << order.Id
            << ", Symbol: " << order.Symbol
            << ", Side: " << (int)order.Side
            << ", Type: " << (int)order.Type
            << ", Price: " << order.Price
            << ", Volume: " << order.Volume
            << std::endl;
    }

    return 0;
}

Output of the example is the following:

Original size: 128
zpp::bits size: 130

Account.Id = 1
Account.Name = Test
Account.Wallet.Currency = USD
Account.Wallet.Amount = 1000
Account.Order => Id: 1, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 0, Type: 0, Price: 1.23456, Volume: 1000
Account.Order => Id: 2, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 1, Type: 1, Price: 1, Volume: 100
Account.Order => Id: 3, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 0, Type: 2, Price: 1.5, Volume: 10

zpp::bits performance

zpp::bits serialization performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.142 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:38:54 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:38:54 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: zpp::bits-Serialize
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: zpp::bits-Serialize
Average time: 34 ns/op
Minimal time: 33 ns/op
Maximal time: 35 ns/op
Total time: 5.790 s
Total operations: 168487238
Total bytes: 24.490 GiB
Operations throughput: 29095978 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 4.232 GiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 130
        OriginalSize: 128
===============================================================================

zpp::bits deserialization performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.159 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:39:52 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:39:52 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: zpp::bits-Deserialize
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: zpp::bits-Deserialize
Average time: 37 ns/op
Minimal time: 36 ns/op
Maximal time: 37 ns/op
Total time: 5.652 s
Total operations: 152512801
Total bytes: 22.161 GiB
Operations throughput: 26982853 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 3.942 GiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 130
        OriginalSize: 128
===============================================================================

JSON serialization

JSON serialization is based on RapidJSON library.

JSON serialization methods

Finally you should extend your domain model with a JSON serialization methods:

#include "serialization/json/serializer.h"
#include "serialization/json/deserializer.h"

namespace TradeProto {

struct Order
{
    ...

    // JSON serialization

    template<typename OutputStream>
    void Serialize(CppSerialization::JSON::Serializer<OutputStream>& serializer)
    {
        serializer.StartObject();
        serializer.Pair("id", Id);
        serializer.Pair("symbol", Symbol);
        serializer.Pair("side", (int)Side);
        serializer.Pair("type", (int)Type);
        serializer.Pair("price", Price);
        serializer.Pair("volume", Volume);
        serializer.EndObject();
    }

    template<typename JSON>
    void Deserialize(const JSON& json)
    {
        using namespace CppSerialization::JSON;

        Deserializer::Find(json, "id", Id);
        Deserializer::Find(json, "symbol", Symbol);
        int side = 0; Deserializer::Find(json, "side", side); Side = (OrderSide)side;
        int type = 0; Deserializer::Find(json, "type", type); Type = (OrderType)type;
        Deserializer::Find(json, "price", Price);
        Deserializer::Find(json, "volume", Volume);
    }

    ...
};

struct Balance
{
    ...

    // JSON serialization

    template<typename OutputStream>
    void Serialize(CppSerialization::JSON::Serializer<OutputStream>& serializer)
    {
        serializer.StartObject();
        serializer.Pair("currency", Currency);
        serializer.Pair("amount", Amount);
        serializer.EndObject();
    }

    template<typename JSON>
    void Deserialize(const JSON& json)
    {
        using namespace CppSerialization::JSON;

        Deserializer::Find(json, "currency", Currency);
        Deserializer::Find(json, "amount", Amount);
    }

    ...
};

struct Account
{
    ...

    // JSON serialization

    template<typename OutputStream>
    void Serialize(CppSerialization::JSON::Serializer<OutputStream>& serializer)
    {
        serializer.StartObject();
        serializer.Pair("id", Id);
        serializer.Pair("name", Name);
        serializer.Key("wallet");
        Wallet.Serialize(serializer);
        serializer.Key("orders");
        serializer.StartArray();
        for (auto& order : Orders)
            order.Serialize(serializer);
        serializer.EndArray();
        serializer.EndObject();
    }

    template<typename JSON>
    void Deserialize(const JSON& json)
    {
        using namespace CppSerialization::JSON;

        Deserializer::Find(json, "id", Id);
        Deserializer::Find(json, "name", Name);
        Deserializer::FindObject(json, "wallet", [this](const Value::ConstObject& object)
        {
            Wallet.Deserialize(object);
        });
        Orders.clear();
        Deserializer::FindArray(json, "orders", [this](const Value& item)
        {
            Order order;
            order.Deserialize(item);
            Orders.emplace_back(order);
        });
    }

    ...
};

} // namespace TradeProto

JSON example

Here comes the usage example of JSON serialize/deserialize functionality:

#include "../proto/trade.h"

#include "serialization/json/parser.h"

#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    // Create a new account with some orders
    TradeProto::Account account(1, "Test", "USD", 1000);
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(1, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::BUY, TradeProto::OrderType::MARKET, 1.23456, 1000));
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(2, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::SELL, TradeProto::OrderType::LIMIT, 1.0, 100));
    account.Orders.emplace_back(TradeProto::Order(3, "EURUSD", TradeProto::OrderSide::BUY, TradeProto::OrderType::STOP, 1.5, 10));

    // Serialize the account to the JSON buffer
    CppSerialization::JSON::StringBuffer buffer;
    CppSerialization::JSON::Serializer<CppSerialization::JSON::StringBuffer> serializer(buffer);
    account.Serialize(serializer);

    // Show original and JSON serialized sizes
    std::cout << "Original size: " << account.size() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "JSON content: " << buffer.GetString() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "JSON size: " << buffer.GetSize() << std::endl;

    // Parse JSON string
    CppSerialization::JSON::Document json = CppSerialization::JSON::Parser::Parse(buffer.GetString());

    // Deserialize the account from the JSON buffer
    TradeProto::Account deserialized;
    deserialized.Deserialize(json);

    // Show account content
    std::cout << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Id = " << deserialized.Id << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Name = " << deserialized.Name << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Wallet.Currency = " << deserialized.Wallet.Currency << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Account.Wallet.Amount = " << deserialized.Wallet.Amount << std::endl;
    for (auto& order : deserialized.Orders)
    {
        std::cout << "Account.Order => Id: " << order.Id
            << ", Symbol: " << order.Symbol
            << ", Side: " << (int)order.Side
            << ", Type: " << (int)order.Type
            << ", Price: " << order.Price
            << ", Volume: " << order.Volume
            << std::endl;
    }

    return 0;
}

Output of the example is the following:

Original size: 128
JSON content: {"id":1,"name":"Test","wallet":{"currency":"USD","amount":1000.0},"orders":[{"id":1,"symbol":"EURUSD","side":0,"type":0,"price":1.23456,"volume":1000.0},{"id":2,"symbol":"EURUSD","side":1,"type":1,"price":1.0,"volume":100.0},{"id":3,"symbol":"EURUSD","side":0,"type":2,"price":1.5,"volume":10.0}]}
JSON size: 297

Account.Id = 1
Account.Name = Test
Account.Wallet.Currency = USD
Account.Wallet.Amount = 1000
Account.Order => Id: 1, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 0, Type: 0, Price: 1.23456, Volume: 1000
Account.Order => Id: 2, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 1, Type: 1, Price: 1, Volume: 100
Account.Order => Id: 3, Symbol: EURUSD, Side: 0, Type: 2, Price: 1.5, Volume: 10

JSON performance

JSON serialization performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.041 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:29:18 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:29:18 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: JSON-Serialize
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: JSON-Serialize
Average time: 696 ns/op
Minimal time: 695 ns/op
Maximal time: 710 ns/op
Total time: 4.932 s
Total operations: 7078563
Total bytes: 2.357 GiB
Operations throughput: 1435099 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 487.794 MiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 297
        OriginalSize: 128
===============================================================================

JSON document parsing performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.154 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:30:48 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:30:48 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: JSON-Parse
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: JSON-Parse
Average time: 771 ns/op
Minimal time: 771 ns/op
Maximal time: 779 ns/op
Total time: 4.914 s
Total operations: 6372779
Total bytes: 2.118 GiB
Operations throughput: 1296734 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 440.764 MiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 297
===============================================================================

JSON deserialization performance of the provided domain model is the following:

===============================================================================
CppBenchmark report. Version 1.0.5.0
===============================================================================
CPU architecture: Apple M1 Pro
CPU logical cores: 10
CPU physical cores: 10
CPU clock speed: 2.400 GHz
CPU Hyper-Threading: disabled
RAM total: 32.000 GiB
RAM free: 1.240 GiB
===============================================================================
OS version: 24.5.0
OS bits: 64-bit
Process bits: 64-bit
Process configuration: release
Local timestamp: Wed Jul 16 19:31:50 2025
UTC timestamp: Wed Jul 16 17:31:50 2025
===============================================================================
Benchmark: JSON-Deserialize
Attempts: 5
Duration: 5 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase: JSON-Deserialize
Average time: 291 ns/op
Minimal time: 291 ns/op
Maximal time: 292 ns/op
Total time: 4.924 s
Total operations: 16884318
Total bytes: 77.297 MiB
Operations throughput: 3428637 ops/s
Bytes throughput: 15.711 MiB/s
Custom values:
        MessageSize: 297
        OriginalSize: 128
===============================================================================