Java

Java: Serialization and Deserialization Examples

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Serialization is a mechanism to convert the state of an object as a byte stream to persist and traverse of an object. Byte stream makes platform independent i.e One object can serialize in a platform and deserialize in another platform.

Reverse operation of serialization is called deserialization i.e convert byte-stream to object.

Advantages of Serialization

  • Use to save/persist state of an object.
  • Use to travel an object across a network i.e also called and marshaling.

Technically, Serialization and deserialization used in Hibernate, RMI, JPA, EJB and JMS technologies to persist the state of the object as a stream.

Java Serialization and Deserialization

In Java, to make an object Serializable implements java.io.Serializable interface which is a marker interface (has no data member and methods).

See Also:

Object Serialization

We can call writeObject() method of ObjectOutputStream class for serialization of object.

public final void writeObject(Object obj) throws IOException

Object Deserilization

We can call readObject() method of ObjectInputStream class for deserialization of object.

public final Object readObject() throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException

Points to remember

  • The objects of those classes will able to serialize which are implementation java.io.Serializable interface.
  • If the parent class implemented a Serializable interface then the child class doesn’t need to implement it but vice-versa is not true.
  • Internal associated component objects of a class must implement the Serializable interface.
  • Object Constructor never called when an object is deserialized.
  • Static and transient data members of the class are not serialized. If you don’t want to serialize some of the data members make it transient.
  • In the case of array or collection, all the objects of array or collection must be serializable. If any object is not serializable, serialization will be failed.

For Example :

//Implemneted Serilizable interface to make objects of
//ClassA serializable eligible
class ClassA implements Serializable{
//Associate component object Class also need to
//implement Serializable
ClassB ob=new ClassB();
}

What is SerialVersionUID?

On-time of Serialization on an object of Serializable class associate a version called as SerialVersionUID. This version is used during Deserialization to verify that the sender and receiver of a serialized object loaded classes are compatible with respect to serialization.

In case receiver loaded class have different version UID than sender’s class then it will throw an exception as InvalidClassException.

We can explicitly declare SerialVersionUID as long in Serializable class as below:

private static final long serialVersionUID=26L;

Note: Use access modifier as private because this field is not useful for inherited classes.

Recommendation: Always explicitly declare SerialVersionUID for serializable classes with some long value because if not mentioned explicitly then compute at runtime i.e highly sensitive to class details that may vary depending on compiler implementations or any change in class fields etc. which can generate different SerialVersionUID. This different SerialVersionUID may affect the time of the deserialization of the object.

serialver

To manually check serialVersionUID of java classes. JDK provided a tool serialver. We can run this tool as below:

serialver [-classpath classpath] [-show] [classname…]

Example: Serialization and Deserialization

This Employee object needs to serialize and deserialize in the given example. The employee object implements java.io.Serializable marker interface that is required to mark as an object is eligible for serialization.

import java.io.Serializable;

public class Employee implements Serializable {
	int id;
	String name;
	int age;

	public Employee(int id, String name, int age) {
		this.id = id;
		this.name = name;
		this.age = age;
	}
}

Here we have written a separate method for the implementation of serialization and deserialization.

import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
import java.io.ObjectOutputStream;

public class SerializationAndDeserilizationExample {

	public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
		// creating employee object
		Employee e1 = new Employee(111, "Saurabh", 35);

		//serialization of object
		serializeEmployee(e1, "employee.txt");

		//deserialization of object
		e1 = deserializeEmployee("employee.txt");
		System.out.println("Employee Detail :");
		System.out.println("Id :" + e1.id + "\nName: " + e1.name + "\nAge: " + e1.age);
	}

	private static void serializeEmployee(Employee e1, String fileName) throws Exception {
		// writing object into employee file
		FileOutputStream f = new FileOutputStream(fileName);
		ObjectOutputStream out = new ObjectOutputStream(f);
		// Serialize employee object as stream and write in file
		out.writeObject(e1);
		out.flush();
		out.close();
		f.close();
		System.out.println("Employee object Serialize Successfully");
	}

	private static Employee deserializeEmployee(String fileName) throws Exception {
		// Read object stream from file
		ObjectInputStream in = new ObjectInputStream(new FileInputStream(fileName));
		//Deserialize object stream to employee object
		Employee e = (Employee) in.readObject();
		in.close();
		return e;
	}

}

Output

Employee object Serialize Successfully
Employee Detail :
Id :111
Name: Saurabh
Age: 35