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Object Sterialization

The document discusses object serialization in Java. It explains that Java allows objects to be serialized to a sequence of bytes that encodes type and field data, allowing the object to be reconstructed. It provides code examples to serialize an Employee object to a file and then deserialize it back.

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Chand Meen
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23 views

Object Sterialization

The document discusses object serialization in Java. It explains that Java allows objects to be serialized to a sequence of bytes that encodes type and field data, allowing the object to be reconstructed. It provides code examples to serialize an Employee object to a file and then deserialize it back.

Uploaded by

Chand Meen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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OBJECT STERIALIZATION

S.CHANDRA PRAKASH

Reg No:191121101019

Java provides a mechanism, called object serialization where an object can be represented as a
sequence of bytes that includes the object's data as well as information about the object's type and
the types of data stored in the object.

After a serialized object has been written into a file, it can be read from the file and deserialized that
is, the type information and bytes that represent the object and its data can be used to recreate the
object in memory.

Most impressive is that the entire process is JVM independent, meaning an object can be serialized
on one platform and deserialized on an entirely different platform.

Classes ObjectInputStream and ObjectOutputStream are high-level streams that contain the
methods for serializing and deserializing an object.

The ObjectOutputStream class contains many write methods for writing various data types, but one
method in particular stands out −

public final void writeObject(Object x) throws IOException

The above method serializes an Object and sends it to the output stream. Similarly, the
ObjectInputStream class contains the following method for deserializing an object −

public final Object readObject() throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException

This method retrieves the next Object out of the stream and deserializes it. The return value is
Object, so you will need to cast it to its appropriate data type.

To demonstrate how serialization works in Java, I am going to use the Employee class that we
discussed early on in the book. Suppose that we have the following Employee class, which
implements the Serializable interface −
Example

public class Employee implements java.io.Serializable {

public String name;

public String address;

public transient int SSN;

public int number;

public void mailCheck() {

System.out.println("Mailing a check to " + name + " " + address);

Notice that for a class to be serialized successfully, two conditions must be met −

The class must implement the java.io.Serializable interface.

All of the fields in the class must be serializable. If a field is not serializable, it must be marked
transient.

If you are curious to know if a Java Standard Class is serializable or not, check the documentation for
the class. The test is simple: If the class implements java.io.Serializable, then it is serializable;
otherwise, it's not.

Serializing an Object

The ObjectOutputStream class is used to serialize an Object. The following SerializeDemo program
instantiates an Employee object and serializes it to a file.

When the program is done executing, a file named employee.ser is created. The program does not
generate any output, but study the code and try to determine what the program is doing.

Note − When serializing an object to a file, the standard convention in Java is to give the file a .ser
extension.
Example

import java.io.*;

public class SerializeDemo {

public static void main(String [] args) {

Employee e = new Employee();

e.name = "Reyan Ali";

e.address = "Phokka Kuan, Ambehta Peer";

e.SSN = 11122333;

e.number = 101;

try {

FileOutputStream fileOut =

new FileOutputStream("/tmp/employee.ser");

ObjectOutputStream out = new ObjectOutputStream(fileOut);

out.writeObject(e);

out.close();

fileOut.close();

System.out.printf("Serialized data is saved in /tmp/employee.ser");

} catch (IOException i) {

i.printStackTrace();

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