5.1 Encoding and decoding

Programs work with data in (at least) two representations:

⚠️ Terminology clash: serialization also means something completely different in transactions (Ch 8). The book uses "encoding" throughout to avoid overloading the word.

When you don't need it: when a database operates directly on compressed data loaded from disk (Ch 4 §7.6), and with zero-copy formats designed to be used both at runtime and on disk/network without an explicit conversion step — Cap'n Proto and FlatBuffers.

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