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Golang Essentials: Serialization

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## Serialization in Go

Serialization in Go involves converting data structures or objects into a format that can be easily stored and reconstructed later. The most common forms of serialization in Go are to JSON and XML.

### JSON Serialization

Go provides the `encoding/json` package for encoding and decoding JSON.

#### Marshalling

Marshalling is the process of transforming a Go data structure into JSON. You use the `json.Marshal` function for this.

```go
type Person struct {
    Name string
    Age  int
}

person := Person{"Alice", 30}
jsonData, err := json.Marshal(person)
if err != nil {
    // handle error
}
```

#### Unmarshalling

Unmarshalling is the reverse process, converting JSON into a Go data structure.

```go
var person Person
err := json.Unmarshal(jsonData, &person)
if err != nil {
    // handle error
}
```

### XML Serialization

For XML, Go provides the `encoding/xml` package. The process is similar to JSON with `xml.Marshal` and `xml.Unmarshal`.

### Conclusion

Understanding serialization is crucial for Go developers, especially when working with web services, APIs, or when needing to persist complex data structures.

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