{"id":5765,"date":"2024-03-14T03:20:17","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T03:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-is-the-usage-of-protobuf-in-c\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T19:22:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T19:22:55","slug":"what-is-the-usage-of-protobuf-in-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-is-the-usage-of-protobuf-in-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Protobuf in C++: A Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To use protobuf in C++, you first need to define a .proto file to describe the structure of the message, and then use the protobuf compiler to generate corresponding C++ code. After that, you can use the generated code in your C++ program to serialize and deserialize messages.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a simple example demonstrating the use of protobuf.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Define a .proto file:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<pre class=\"post-pre\"><code>syntax = <span class=\"hljs-string\">\"proto3\"<\/span>;\r\n\r\n<span class=\"hljs-keyword\">message <\/span><span class=\"hljs-title class_\">Person<\/span> {\r\n  <span class=\"hljs-type\">string<\/span> name = <span class=\"hljs-number\">1<\/span>;\r\n  <span class=\"hljs-type\">int32<\/span> age = <span class=\"hljs-number\">2<\/span>;\r\n  <span class=\"hljs-keyword\">repeated<\/span> <span class=\"hljs-type\">string<\/span> hobbies = <span class=\"hljs-number\">3<\/span>;\r\n}\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<ol>\n<li>Compile C++ code using the Protobuf compiler.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<pre class=\"post-pre\"><code>protoc --cpp_out=. person.proto\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<ol>\n<li>Use the generated code in a C++ program.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<pre class=\"post-pre\"><code><span class=\"hljs-meta\">#<span class=\"hljs-keyword\">include<\/span> <span class=\"hljs-string\">\"person.pb.h\"<\/span><\/span>\r\n<span class=\"hljs-meta\">#<span class=\"hljs-keyword\">include<\/span> <span class=\"hljs-string\">&lt;fstream&gt;<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n<span class=\"hljs-function\"><span class=\"hljs-type\">int<\/span> <span class=\"hljs-title\">main<\/span><span class=\"hljs-params\">()<\/span> <\/span>{\r\n  Person person;\r\n  person.<span class=\"hljs-built_in\">set_name<\/span>(<span class=\"hljs-string\">\"Alice\"<\/span>);\r\n  person.<span class=\"hljs-built_in\">set_age<\/span>(<span class=\"hljs-number\">30<\/span>);\r\n  person.<span class=\"hljs-built_in\">add_hobbies<\/span>(<span class=\"hljs-string\">\"Reading\"<\/span>);\r\n  person.<span class=\"hljs-built_in\">add_hobbies<\/span>(<span class=\"hljs-string\">\"Swimming\"<\/span>);\r\n\r\n  <span class=\"hljs-comment\">\/\/ \u5e8f\u5217\u5316\u6d88\u606f<\/span>\r\n  <span class=\"hljs-function\">std::fstream <span class=\"hljs-title\">output<\/span><span class=\"hljs-params\">(<span class=\"hljs-string\">\"person.pb\"<\/span>, std::ios::out | std::ios::binary)<\/span><\/span>;\r\n  person.<span class=\"hljs-built_in\">SerializeToOstream<\/span>(&amp;output);\r\n\r\n  <span class=\"hljs-comment\">\/\/ \u53cd\u5e8f\u5217\u5316\u6d88\u606f<\/span>\r\n  Person new_person;\r\n  <span class=\"hljs-function\">std::fstream <span class=\"hljs-title\">input<\/span><span class=\"hljs-params\">(<span class=\"hljs-string\">\"person.pb\"<\/span>, std::ios::in | std::ios::binary)<\/span><\/span>;\r\n  new_person.<span class=\"hljs-built_in\">ParseFromIstream<\/span>(&amp;input);\r\n\r\n  <span class=\"hljs-comment\">\/\/ \u8f93\u51fa\u6d88\u606f\u5185\u5bb9<\/span>\r\n  std::cout &lt;&lt; <span class=\"hljs-string\">\"Name: \"<\/span> &lt;&lt; new_person.<span class=\"hljs-built_in\">name<\/span>() &lt;&lt; std::endl;\r\n  std::cout &lt;&lt; <span class=\"hljs-string\">\"Age: \"<\/span> &lt;&lt; new_person.<span class=\"hljs-built_in\">age<\/span>() &lt;&lt; std::endl;\r\n  <span class=\"hljs-keyword\">for<\/span> (<span class=\"hljs-type\">const<\/span> <span class=\"hljs-keyword\">auto<\/span>&amp; hobby : new_person.<span class=\"hljs-built_in\">hobbies<\/span>()) {\r\n    std::cout &lt;&lt; <span class=\"hljs-string\">\"Hobby: \"<\/span> &lt;&lt; hobby &lt;&lt; std::endl;\r\n  }\r\n\r\n  <span class=\"hljs-keyword\">return<\/span> <span class=\"hljs-number\">0<\/span>;\r\n}\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>The examples above demonstrate how to serialize and deserialize messages in a C++ program using protobuf, and access the data members of the messages. In practical applications, more complex message structures can be defined as needed, and additional functionality provided by protobuf can be used to handle messages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To use protobuf in C++, you first need to define a .proto file to describe the structure of the message, and then use the protobuf compiler to generate corresponding C++ code. After that, you can use the generated code in your C++ program to serialize and deserialize messages. Here is a simple example demonstrating the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[274,224,5538,4710,5629],"class_list":["post-5765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-c","tag-data-structures","tag-protobuf","tag-protocol-buffers","tag-serialization"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.5 (Yoast SEO v21.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Protobuf in C++: A Guide - Blog - Silicon Cloud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how to use Protocol Buffers in C++. 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