Serialize object with outputstream

Question

Suppose I have an OutputStream (and not an ObjectOutputStream). Is is possible to send a serialized object using the write method? Thanks!

Answer 1

Here is what you do to serialize the object:

new ObjectOutputStream(outputStream).writeObject(obj);

If you want to control the byte[] output:

ByteArrayOutputStream buffer = new ByteArrayOutputStream();

ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(buffer);

oos.writeObject(obj);

oos.close();

byte[] rawData = buffer.toByteArray();

Answer 2

You could use ObjectOutputStream to 'capture' the objects data in a byte Array and send this to the OutputStream.

String s = "test";
ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream( baos );
oos.writeObject( s );
byte[] byteArray = baos.toByteArray();
for ( byte b : byteArray ) {
    System.out.print( (char) b );
}

Another non generic option would be to serialize the object in a string representation e.g. CSV