Protocol buffers provide a serialization format for packets of typed, structured data that are up to a few megabytes in size. The format is suitable for both ephemeral network traffic and long-term data storage. Protocol buffers can be extended with new information without invalidating existing data or requiring code to be updated. They are the most commonly-used data format at Google. **Extension:** `.proto` ## Protocol Buffers Official Documentation https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/overview ## Protocol Buffers Advantages - Compact data storage - Fast parsing - Available in [several programming languages](https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/overview#cross-lang) ## Protocol Buffers Disadvantages - Not suitable for data larger than a few megabytes - Messages are not compressed. You can compress them but sometimes special-purpose compression algorithms (JPEG, PNG) will produce more optimal results. - Not optimal for scientific and engineering use cases involving multi-dimensional arrays of floating point numbers. %% wiki footer: Please don't edit anything below this line %% ## This note in GitHub <span class="git-footer">[Edit In GitHub](https://github.dev/data-engineering-community/data-engineering-wiki/blob/main/Tools/File%20Formats/Protocol%20Buffers.md "git-hub-edit-note") | [Copy this note](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/data-engineering-community/data-engineering-wiki/main/Tools/File%20Formats/Protocol%20Buffers.md "git-hub-copy-note")</span> <span class="git-footer">Was this page helpful? [👍](https://tally.so/r/mOaxjk?rating=Yes&url=https://dataengineering.wiki/Tools/File%20Formats/Protocol%20Buffers) or [👎](https://tally.so/r/mOaxjk?rating=No&url=https://dataengineering.wiki/Tools/File%20Formats/Protocol%20Buffers)</span>