Recommended serialization library for dynamically sized objects

Question

I am trying to write a vector of objects into a solana account. The problem is, the pre-allocated size of the account might be too small for my vector. I know i can re-size the account with realloc, but I still don't know the serialized size of my vector of objects, which I need to call realloc.

I could implement my own serialization logic, but I'd prefer not to do that.

Are there any serialization libraries out there that tell you the size of the serialized object before you serialize it?

Answer 1

You wouldn't want to serialize an account within the runtime. For any meaningfully sized account, this will use up more compute units than you have. I have generally gotten away with just looking up the byte length of the account after all state changes have been made and then calling realloc with that value.

let data_len = my_account.try_to_vec()?.len();
my_account.to_account_info().realloc(data_len, false)?;