The Serde Data Model

Serde Data Model Types

The serde data model, as defined by the Serde Book, contains 29 types, each referred to as "A Serde Data Type".

1 - bool

A type capable of expressing exclusively the values true or false.

2 - i8

A signed integer type, capable of expressing any value in the range of -128..=127 (or -(2^7)..=((2^7) - 1)).

3 - i16

A signed integer type, capable of expressing any value in the range of -32768..=32767 (or -(2^15)..=((2^15) - 1)).

4 - i32

A signed integer type, capable of expressing any value in the range of -2147483648..=2147483647 (or -(2^31)..=((2^31) - 1)).

5 - i64

A signed integer type, capable of expressing any value in the range of -9223372036854775808..=9223372036854775807 (or -(2^63)..=((2^63) - 1)).

6 - i128

A signed integer type, capable of expressing any value in the range of -170141183460469231731687303715884105728..=170141183460469231731687303715884105727 (or -(2^127)..=((2^127) - 1)).

7 - u8

An unsigned integer type, capable of expressing any value in the range of 0..=255 (or 0..=((2^8) - 1)).

8 - u16

An unsigned integer type, capable of expressing any value in the range of 0..=65535 (or 0..=((2^16) - 1)).

9 - u32

An unsigned integer type, capable of expressing any value in the range of 0..=4294967295 (or 0..=((2^32) - 1)).

10 - u64

An unsigned integer type, capable of expressing any value in the range of 0..=18446744073709551615 (or 0..=((2^64) - 1)).

11 - u128

An unsigned integer type, capable of expressing any value in the range of 0..=340282366920938463463374607431768211456 (or 0..=((2^128) - 1)).

12 - f32

A "binary32" type defined as defined in IEEE 754-2008.

13 - f64

A "binary64" type defined as defined in IEEE 754-2008.

14 - char

A four-byte type representing a Unicode scalar value.

A Unicode scalar value is defined by Unicode 14.0 Chapter 3 Section 9 - "Unicode Encoding Forms", Definition D76:

Unicode scalar value: Any Unicode code point except high-surrogate and low-surrogate code points.

As a result of this definition, the set of Unicode scalar values consists of the ranges 0x0000_0000 to 0x0000_D7FF and 0x0000_E000 to 0x0010_FFFF inclusive.

15 - string

A type representing a variable quantity of bytes, which together represent a valid UTF-8 code point sequence, as defined by Unicode 14.0 Chapter 3 Section 9 - "Unicode Encoding Forms", Definition D92:

UTF-8 encoding form: The Unicode encoding form that assigns each Unicode scalar value to an unsigned byte sequence of one to four bytes in length, as specified in Table 3-6 and Table 3-7.

This encoding form is stored using the "UTF-8 encoding scheme", as defined by Unicode 14.0 Chapter 3 Section 10 - "Unicode Encoding Schemes", Definition D95:

UTF-8 encoding scheme: The Unicode encoding scheme that serializes a UTF-8 code unit sequence in exactly the same order as the code unit sequence itself.

16 - byte array

A type representing a variable quantity of bytes.

17 - option

A type representing zero or one Serde Data Type.

18 - unit

A type representing an anonymous value containing no data.

19 - unit_struct

A type representing a named value containing no data.

20 - unit_variant

A type representing a named, tagged union variant, containing no data.

21 - newtype_struct

A type representing a named value, containing exactly one anonymous Serde Data Type.

22 - newtype_variant

A type representing a named, tagged union variant, containing exactly one anonymous Serde Data Type.

23 - seq

A type representing a variable quantity of values of a single Serde Data Type, e.g. a "Homogeneous Array".

Values of each element of the seq may have differing values.

24 - tuple

A type representing a fixed quantity of values, each of any Serde Data Type, e.g. a "Heterogeneous Array".

Values of each element of the tuple may have differing values.

25 - tuple_struct

A type representing a named type specifcally containing exactly one tuple Serde Data Type

26 - tuple_variant

A type representing a named, tagged union variant, containing exactly one tuple Serde Data Type.

27 - map

A type representing a variable quantity of key-value pairs. All keys are values of a single Serde Data Type. All values are a values of a single Serde Data Type.

28 - struct

A type representing a fixed quantity of named values, each of any Serde Data Type.

Values of each element of the tuple may have differing values.

NOTE: Similar to tuples , structs have a known number of members, however all members of a struct also have a known name.

structs are also similar to maps, in that each member has a name (as a key) and a value, however structs always have a fixed number of members, and their names are always constant.

29 - struct_variant

A type representing a named, tagged union variant, containing exactly one struct Serde Data type

Meta types

Named and Anonymous types

TODO

Tagged Unions

TODO

References