Re: [Boost-users] [Serialization] Avoiding multiple de-serialization

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] [Serialization] Avoiding multiple de-serialization
From: Nat Goodspeed (nat_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-03-11 10:54:39

On Mar 11, 2014, at 5:11 AM, beet <r.berlich_at_gemfony.eu> wrote:

> I have a large, "directed" tree-like data structure (i.e., no cycles),
> holding boost::shared_ptr's either to container-objects or
> "leaf-objects".
> 
> I'm storing
> boost::shared_ptr's to the leaf objects in a container outside of the
> tree. Getting access to the leaf objects would otherwise be very
> inefficient, as the tree can have virtually any geometry (except for
> cycles), and I do not know the geometry in advance.
> 
> The tree is repeatedly (de-)serialized, and I would like to also
> (de-)serialize the top-level container, so I still have easy access to
> the leaf-objects after de-serialization.
> 
> However, it is not clear to me what happens to the leaf-objects after
> de-serialization of both the tree and the external container.
> 
> Will the leaf-objects be de-serialized twice ? Or might there be
> different leaf-objects in the external container and in the tree ?

The serialization library tries to save multiple pointers to the same object in such a way that deserializing them again produces pointers to the same object. I believe that functionality can be engaged for shared_ptrs, though I have not done that myself.

However - since deserializing necessarily requires a pass over the entire tree, why not just rebuild your leaf cache from scratch every time you read the underlying tree? What do you gain by serializing the leaf cache?
>