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<a href="https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/edit/master/docs/source/index.md" title="Edit this page" class="md-content__button md-icon" rel="edit">
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M10 20H6V4h7v5h5v3.1l2-2V8l-6-6H6c-1.1 0-2 .9-2 2v16c0 1.1.9 2 2 2h4zm10.2-7c.1 0 .3.1.4.2l1.3 1.3c.2.2.2.6 0 .8l-1 1-2.1-2.1 1-1c.1-.1.2-.2.4-.2m0 3.9L14.1 23H12v-2.1l6.1-6.1z"/></svg>
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<h1 id="overview">Overview</h1>
<p>FlatBuffers is an efficient cross platform serialization library for C++, C#, C,
Go, Java, Kotlin, JavaScript, Lobster, Lua, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Rust and
Swift. It was originally created at Google for game development and other
performance-critical applications.</p>
<p>It is available as Open Source on
<a href="https://github.com/google/flatbuffers">GitHub</a> under the Apache license v2.0.</p>
<h2 id="why-use-flatbuffers">Why Use FlatBuffers?</h2>
<div class="grid cards">
<ul>
<li>
<p><span class="twemoji lg middle"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M15 4a8 8 0 0 1 8 8 8 8 0 0 1-8 8 8 8 0 0 1-8-8 8 8 0 0 1 8-8m0 2a6 6 0 0 0-6 6 6 6 0 0 0 6 6 6 6 0 0 0 6-6 6 6 0 0 0-6-6m-1 2h1.5v3.78l2.33 2.33-1.06 1.06L14 12.4zM2 18a1 1 0 0 1-1-1 1 1 0 0 1 1-1h3.83c.31.71.71 1.38 1.17 2zm1-5a1 1 0 0 1-1-1 1 1 0 0 1 1-1h2.05L5 12l.05 1zm1-5a1 1 0 0 1-1-1 1 1 0 0 1 1-1h3c-.46.62-.86 1.29-1.17 2z"/></svg></span> <strong>Access to serialized data without
parsing/unpacking</strong></p>
<hr />
<p>Access the data directly without unpacking or parsing.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span class="twemoji lg middle"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M17 17H7V7h10m4 4V9h-2V7a2 2 0 0 0-2-2h-2V3h-2v2h-2V3H9v2H7c-1.11 0-2 .89-2 2v2H3v2h2v2H3v2h2v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v2h2v-2h2v2h2v-2h2a2 2 0 0 0 2-2v-2h2v-2h-2v-2m-6 2h-2v-2h2m2-2H9v6h6z"/></svg></span> <strong>Memory Efficiency and Speed</strong></p>
<hr />
<p>The only memory needed to access your data is that of the buffer.
No heap is required.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span class="twemoji lg middle"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M9 14H2v2h7v3l4-4-4-4zm6-1v-3h7V8h-7V5l-4 4z"/></svg></span> <strong>Backwards and Forwards
Compatibility</strong></p>
<hr />
<p>FlatBuffers enables the schema to evolve over time while still maintaining
forwards and backwards compatibility with old flatbuffers.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span class="twemoji lg middle"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="m22.11 21.46-1.27 1.27L19.11 21H18v-1.11L12.11 14H11v-1.11l-.69-.69a7.9 7.9 0 0 0-3.22 1.48l1.37 1.38-1.41 1.41-1.37-1.37A7.94 7.94 0 0 0 4.06 19H6v2H2v-1a10 10 0 0 1 6.68-9.43L3.85 5.74 2 5V3.89L1.11 3l1.28-1.27m19.52 16.98A10 10 0 0 0 14 10.2v-2L22 5V3H6.2M12 18a1.84 1.84 0 0 0-.88.21L7.27 20l3.85 1.79A1.84 1.84 0 0 0 12 22a2 2 0 0 0 0-4"/></svg></span> <strong>Small Footprint</strong></p>
<hr />
<p>Minimal dependencies and small code footprint.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h2 id="why-not-use">Why not use...</h2>
<div class="tabbed-set tabbed-alternate" data-tabs="1:2"><input checked="checked" id="protocol-buffers" name="__tabbed_1" type="radio" /><input id="json" name="__tabbed_1" type="radio" /><div class="tabbed-labels"><label for="protocol-buffers">Protocol Buffers</label><label for="json">JSON</label></div>
<div class="tabbed-content">
<div class="tabbed-block">
<p>Protocol Buffers is indeed relatively similar to FlatBuffers, with the primary
difference being that FlatBuffers does not need a parsing/unpacking step to a
secondary representation before you can access data, often coupled with
per-object memory allocation. The code is an order of magnitude bigger, too.</p>
</div>
<div class="tabbed-block">
<p>JSON is very readable (which is why we use it as our optional text format) and
very convenient when used together with dynamically typed languages (such as
JavaScript). When serializing data from statically typed languages, however,
JSON not only has the obvious drawback of runtime inefficiency, but also forces
you to write more code to access data (counterintuitively) due to its
dynamic-typing serialization system. In this context, it is only a better choice
for systems that have very little to no information ahead of time about what
data needs to be stored.</p>
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