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 <h1 id="quick-start">Quick Start</h1>
 <p>This will quickly go over the parts of using FlatBuffers to serialize some data.
 See the <a href="../tutorial/">Tutorial</a> for a more in depth guide.</p>
 <ol>
 <li>
 <p><strong>Build the compiler for FlatBuffers (<a href="../flatc/"><code>flatc</code></a>)</strong></p>
 <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code>cmake<span class="w"> </span>-G<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;Unix Makefiles&quot;</span>
 make<span class="w"> </span>-j
 </code></pre></div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <p><strong>Define your FlatBuffer <a href="../schema/">schema</a> (<code>.fbs</code>)</strong></p>
 <div class="highlight"><table class="highlighttable"><tr><th colspan="2" class="filename"><span class="filename">monster.fbs</span></th></tr><tr><td class="linenos"><div class="linenodiv"><pre><span></span><span class="normal">1</span>
 <span class="normal">2</span>
 <span class="normal">3</span>
 <span class="normal">4</span>
 <span class="normal">5</span>
 <span class="normal">6</span></pre></div></td><td class="code"><div><pre><span></span><code><span class="n">table</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">Monster</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span>
 <span class="w">  </span><span class="nl">name</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="n">string</span><span class="p">;</span>
 <span class="w">  </span><span class="nl">health</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="kt">int</span><span class="p">;</span>
 <span class="p">}</span>

 <span class="n">root_type</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">Monster</span><span class="p">;</span>
 </code></pre></div></td></tr></table></div>
 <p>See <a href="https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/blob/master/samples/monster.fbs">monster.fbs</a>
 for an complete example.</p>
 </li>
 <li>
 <p><strong>Generate code for your language(s)</strong></p>
 <p>Use the <code>flatc</code> compiler to take your schema and generate language-specific
 code:</p>
 <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code>./flatc<span class="w"> </span>--cpp<span class="w"> </span>--rust<span class="w"> </span>monster.fbs
 </code></pre></div>
 <p>Which generates <code>monster_generated.h</code> and <code>monster_generated.rs</code> files.</p>
 </li>
 <li>
 <p><strong>Serialize data</strong></p>
 <p>Use the generated code files, as well as the <code>FlatBufferBuilder</code> to construct
 your serialized buffer.</p>
 <div class="highlight"><table class="highlighttable"><tr><th colspan="2" class="filename"><span class="filename">my_monster_factory.cc</span></th></tr><tr><td class="linenos"><div class="linenodiv"><pre><span></span><span class="normal"> 1</span>
 <span class="normal"> 2</span>
 <span class="normal"> 3</span>
 <span class="normal"> 4</span>
 <span class="normal"> 5</span>
 <span class="normal"> 6</span>
 <span class="normal"> 7</span>
 <span class="normal"> 8</span>
 <span class="normal"> 9</span>
 <span class="normal">10</span>
 <span class="normal">11</span>
 <span class="normal">12</span>
 <span class="normal">13</span>
 <span class="normal">14</span></pre></div></td><td class="code"><div><pre><span></span><code><span class="cp">#include</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="cpf">&quot;flatbuffers.h&quot;</span>
 <span class="cp">#include</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="cpf">&quot;monster_generated.h&quot;</span>

 <span class="kt">int</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">main</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="w"> </span>
 <span class="w">  </span><span class="c1">// Used to build the flatbuffer</span>
 <span class="w">  </span><span class="n">FlatBufferBuilder</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">builder</span><span class="p">;</span>

 <span class="w">  </span><span class="c1">// Auto-generated function emitted from `flatc` and the input </span>
 <span class="w">  </span><span class="c1">// `monster.fbs` schema.</span>
 <span class="w">  </span><span class="k">auto</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">monster</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">=</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">CreateMonsterDirect</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">builder</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">&quot;Abominable Snowman&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">100</span><span class="p">);</span>

 <span class="w">  </span><span class="c1">// Finalize the buffer.</span>
 <span class="w">  </span><span class="n">builder</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">Finish</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">monster</span><span class="p">);</span>
 <span class="p">}</span>
 </code></pre></div></td></tr></table></div>
 <p>See complete <a href="https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/blob/master/samples/sample_binary.cpp#L24-L56">C++ Example</a>.</p>
 </li>
 <li>
 <p><strong>Transmit/Store the serialized FlatBuffer</strong></p>
 <p>Use your serialized buffer however you want. Send it to someone, save if for
 later, etc...</p>
 <div class="highlight"><table class="highlighttable"><tr><th colspan="2" class="filename"><span class="filename">my_monster_factory.cc</span></th></tr><tr><td class="linenos"><div class="linenodiv"><pre><span></span><span class="normal">13</span>
 <span class="normal">14</span></pre></div></td><td class="code"><div><pre><span></span><code><span class="c1">// Get a pointer to the flatbuffer.</span>
 <span class="k">const</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="kt">uint8_t</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">flatbuffer</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">=</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">builder</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">GetBufferPointer</span><span class="p">();</span>
 </code></pre></div></td></tr></table></div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <p><strong>Read the data</strong></p>
 <p>Use the generated accessors to read the data from the serialized buffer.</p>
 <p>It doesn't need to be the same language, or even schema version (see
 <a href="../evolution/">Evolving</a>), FlatBuffers ensures the data is readable across
 languages and schema versions. </p>
 <div class="highlight"><table class="highlighttable"><tr><th colspan="2" class="filename"><span class="filename">my_monster_factory.cc</span></th></tr><tr><td class="linenos"><div class="linenodiv"><pre><span></span><span class="normal">15</span>
 <span class="normal">16</span>
 <span class="normal">17</span>
 <span class="normal">18</span>
 <span class="normal">19</span>
 <span class="normal">20</span></pre></div></td><td class="code"><div><pre><span></span><code><span class="c1">// Get a view of the root monster from the flatbuffer.</span>
 <span class="k">const</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">Monster</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">snowman</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">=</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">GetMonster</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">flatbuffer</span><span class="p">);</span>

 <span class="c1">// Access the monster&#39;s fields directly.</span>
 <span class="n">ASSERT_EQ</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">snowman</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">(),</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">&quot;Abominable Snowman&quot;</span><span class="p">);</span>
 <span class="n">ASSERT_EQ</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">snowman</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="n">health</span><span class="p">(),</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">100</span><span class="p">);</span>
 </code></pre></div></td></tr></table></div>
 <p>See <a href="https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/blob/master/samples/sample_binary.rs#L92-L106"><code>Rust</code> examples</a>
 for reading the data written by <code>C++</code>.</p>
 </li>
 </ol>


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