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 = "[email protected]";
            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();
        }
    }
}