serialization

Overview ¶

Package serialization provides compact binary serialization for deterministic encryption.

Supported Types:

• Numeric: int, int8, int16, int32, int64, uint, uint8, uint16, uint32, uint64
• Floating Point: float32, float64
• Boolean: bool
• Text: string
• Binary: []byte
• Collections: []string
• Temporal: time.Time
• Arrays: [N]byte (converted to []byte format)
• Pointers: *T for any supported type T (with nil handling)
• Type Aliases: Custom types based on supported types (e.g., type UserID int64, type Tags []string)

Binary Format:

• Fixed-size types (int, float, bool): Direct little-endian encoding
• Variable-length types (string, []byte, []string): [4-byte length prefix][data]
• []string: [4-byte slice length][string1: 4-byte length + UTF-8 bytes][string2: ...]
• Pointers: [1-byte nil marker (0x00=nil, 0x01=non-nil)][serialized value if non-nil]

The serialization is deterministic: the same input always produces identical bytes, which is critical for searchable encryption and consistent hashing.