SerDe is a Serializer DeSerializer. Hive uses SerDe to read and write data from tables. Generally, users prefer to write a Deserializer instead of a SerDe as they want to read their own data format rather than writing to it. If the SerDe supports DDL i.e. basically SerDe with parameterized columns and different column types, the users can implement a Protocol based DynamicSerDe rather than writing the SerDe from scratch.