简介  
Protobuf是google提供的一个开源序列化框架，类似于XML，JSON这样的数据表示语言。 
支持多种编程语言，现：Java、c#、c++、Go 和 Python。 
基于二进制，因此比传统的XML表示高效短小得多 
作为一种效率和兼容性都很优秀的二进制数据传输格式，可以用于诸如网络传输、配置文件、数据存储等诸多领域。 
使用

1、下载地址：http://code.google.com/p/protobuf/downloads/

2、proto文件格式

package 对应于c#中的命名空间 
required 对应类的属性 
optional 创建一个具有默认值的属性，通过[default=XXX]设置默认值，不添加默认为空置。如string默认为“”，int默认为0 
enum 创建枚举 
message 创建自定义类或内部类 
repeated 对应list列表数据 
proto数据类型： 
 
示例：

package test;

message Person {

    required string name=1;

    required int32 id=2;

    optional string email=3 ;

    enum PhoneType {

        MOBILE=0;

        HOME=1;

        WORK=2;

    }

    message PhoneNumber {

        required string number=1;

        optional PhoneType type=2 [default=HOME];

    }

    repeated PhoneNumber phone=4;

}

proto文件编辑的命令： 
protogen -i:input.proto -o:output.cs 
protogen -i:input.proto -o:output.xml -t:xml 
protogen -i:input.proto -o:output.cs -p:datacontract -q 
protogen -i:input.proto -o:output.cs -p:observable=true

转换之后的文件：

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

// <auto-generated>

//     This code was generated by a tool.

//

//     Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if

//     the code is regenerated.

// </auto-generated>

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

// Generated from: input/test.proto

namespace input.test

{

  [global::System.Serializable, global::ProtoBuf.ProtoContract(Name=@"Person")]

  public partial class Person : global::ProtoBuf.IExtensible

  {

    public Person() {}

    private string _name;

    [global::ProtoBuf.ProtoMember(1, IsRequired = true, Name=@"name", DataFormat = global::ProtoBuf.DataFormat.Default)]

    public string name

    {

      get { return _name; }

      set { _name = value; }

    }

    private int _id;

    [global::ProtoBuf.ProtoMember(2, IsRequired = true, Name=@"id", DataFormat = global::ProtoBuf.DataFormat.TwosComplement)]

    public int id

    {

      get { return _id; }

      set { _id = value; }

    }

    private string _email = "";

    [global::ProtoBuf.ProtoMember(3, IsRequired = false, Name=@"email", DataFormat = global::ProtoBuf.DataFormat.Default)]

    [global::System.ComponentModel.DefaultValue("")]

    public string email

    {

      get { return _email; }

      set { _email = value; }

    }

    private readonly global::System.Collections.Generic.List<Person.PhoneNumber> _phone = new global::System.Collections.Generic.List<Person.PhoneNumber>();

    [global::ProtoBuf.ProtoMember(4, Name=@"phone", DataFormat = global::ProtoBuf.DataFormat.Default)]

    public global::System.Collections.Generic.List<Person.PhoneNumber> phone

    {

      get { return _phone; }

    }

  [global::System.Serializable, global::ProtoBuf.ProtoContract(Name=@"PhoneNumber")]

  public partial class PhoneNumber : global::ProtoBuf.IExtensible

  {

    public PhoneNumber() {}

    private string _number;

    [global::ProtoBuf.ProtoMember(1, IsRequired = true, Name=@"number", DataFormat = global::ProtoBuf.DataFormat.Default)]

    public string number

    {

      get { return _number; }

      set { _number = value; }

    }

    private Person.PhoneType _type = Person.PhoneType.HOME;

    [global::ProtoBuf.ProtoMember(2, IsRequired = false, Name=@"type", DataFormat = global::ProtoBuf.DataFormat.TwosComplement)]

    [global::System.ComponentModel.DefaultValue(Person.PhoneType.HOME)]

    public Person.PhoneType type

    {

      get { return _type; }

      set { _type = value; }

    }

    private global::ProtoBuf.IExtension extensionObject;

    global::ProtoBuf.IExtension global::ProtoBuf.IExtensible.GetExtensionObject(bool createIfMissing)

      { return global::ProtoBuf.Extensible.GetExtensionObject(ref extensionObject, createIfMissing); }

  }

    [global::ProtoBuf.ProtoContract(Name=@"PhoneType")]

    public enum PhoneType

    {

      [global::ProtoBuf.ProtoEnum(Name=@"MOBILE", Value=0)]

      MOBILE = 0,

      [global::ProtoBuf.ProtoEnum(Name=@"HOME", Value=1)]

      HOME = 1,

      [global::ProtoBuf.ProtoEnum(Name=@"WORK", Value=2)]

      WORK = 2

    }

    private global::ProtoBuf.IExtension extensionObject;

    global::ProtoBuf.IExtension global::ProtoBuf.IExtensible.GetExtensionObject(bool createIfMissing)

      { return global::ProtoBuf.Extensible.GetExtensionObject(ref extensionObject, createIfMissing); }

  }

}

3、proto转化后的.cs文件的序列化和反序列化

首先，将生成的.cs文件复制到自己的项目文件中 
然后添加动态链接库文件protobuf-net.dll（该文件位于下载的proto文件的protobuf-net_r668\ProtoGen目录下） 
然后在程序中引用，相关程序如下：

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Threading.Tasks;

using ProtoBuf;

using input.test;

using System.IO;

using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;

namespace test1

{

    class Program

    {

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            Person p = new Person();

            p.name = "zhang san";

            p.email = "XXXXX@qq.com";

            p.id = 12;

            //序列化操作

            MemoryStream ms=new MemoryStream();

            //BinaryFormatter bm = new BinaryFormatter();

            //bm.Serialize(ms, p);

            Serializer.Serialize<Person>(ms, p);

            byte[] data = ms.ToArray();//length=27  709

            //反序列化操作

            MemoryStream ms1 = new MemoryStream(data);

           // BinaryFormatter bm1 = new BinaryFormatter();

           //Person p1= bm.Deserialize(ms1) as Person;

            Person p1 = Serializer.Deserialize<Person>(ms1);

           Console.ReadKey();

        }

    }

}