# Proper way to serialize?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/proper-way-to-serialize/121085>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [November 23, 2007, 3:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/proper-way-to-serialize/121085 "2007-11-23T15:48:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jacobezzell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/f19dbf/32.png) [@jacobezzell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jacobezzell)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 3:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/proper-way-to-serialize/121085/1 "2007-11-23T15:48:00Z")

</div>

I am currently serializing using Marshal.dump/load on a BYTE (datatype)  
MySQL field. I noticed people using “serialize :abc” - How is this used  
and which way is preferred?