public void serializeGeneric() throws IOException { // Create a datum to serialize. Schema schema = new Schema.Parser().parse(getClass().getResourceAsStream("/MyPair.avsc")); GenericRecord datum = new GenericData.Record(schema); datum.put("left", new Utf8("dog")); datum.put("right", new Utf8("cat")); // Serialize it. ByteArrayOutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream(); DatumWriter<GenericRecord> writer = new GenericDatumWriter<GenericRecord>(schema); Encoder encoder = EncoderFactory.get().binaryEncoder(out, null); writer.write(datum, encoder); encoder.flush(); out.close(); System.out.println("Serialization: " + out); // Deserialize it. DatumReader<GenericRecord> reader = new GenericDatumReader<GenericRecord>(schema); BinaryDecoder decoder = DecoderFactory.get().binaryDecoder(out.toByteArray(), null); GenericRecord result = reader.read(null, decoder); System.out.printf("Left: %s, Right: %s\n", result.get("left"), result.get("right")); }