Why save objects on files in serialization? - java

I think i am little bit confused on this part . As Why we use files in serialization in order to store our save objects that we read later, why dont we just skip serialization and store it into database and read it from there. Aint this is similar

Related

where to save the downloaded data?

I download big json files 8x(2mb) and used Gson to convert them into java objects. Now I need to make these objects available to all the activities. is it safe to save them as static variables?
You must be very lucky to avoid the out of the memory exception.
I would probably store the object to Room database(or any sort of SQL) while parsing and read when required.
Or just store the JSON as a binary file and read again necessary bits when its required since I don't know the usage of the JSON data I can't comment on more... But definitely avoid storing in the static variables.

Android Intents and Lists

I plan on reading several files when my app/game is created and using the information from them for the entirety of the app. I also have to write to the file at one point.
I have two files. One is a 2-column text file that I'll turn into a dictionary for fast searching. The other is a text file that has 11 columns. I'll make a dictionary out of two of the columns, and the other data I need kept as is so I can write to the columns to count the amount of times something happens in different circumstances for datamining.
Currently, I've turned the second file into a list of a list of strings, or List>. I can't figure out how to pass that around in intents. ".putStringArrayListExtra" only works for a list of strings.
Am I going about this the wrong way entirely? This is my first real Android app.
In order to store a data structure into an Intent, it has to be either serializable or parcelable. If your data structure is neither of them, you might create a class that would implement Serializable and manage it. A good example might be found here.
Once done, you then might use Intent.putSerializable(...) to store your data structure. See this:
Using putSerializable in Android
Additionally to this, if you could convert your structure into a JSON structure, you'd already have it done since it would be treated as a String. If not, the above solution should be easy to do.

Best way to create a file and then use the data later

Java: Best way to store data in a file.
I am doing a comparison between 2 versions of a file and then record the differences between the file as Insert, Deleted or Changed. The data needs to be logged in a similiar format >>
Version_old=1.28 Version_new=1.29
Operation=Changed,SourceLineFrom=55,SourceLineTo=55 TargetFileFrom=55 TargetFileTo= 55
Operation=Delete, SourceLineFrom=57,SourceLineTo=59 TargetFilefrom=57 TargetFileTo= -
The data is needed later on. Can anyone suggest me which is the best and easiest format to save this data? the data have to retrieved later on for processing.
I would look at the format produced by git diff tool. It's clear, can easily be parsed, and I'm sure that there are existing parsers for it
too amny options to really be helpful.
it sounds like maybe XML - at least you get free parsers.
Another alternative is to store the data using JSON format. This is mainly possible because each change set is constructed as a name-value pair (a Map basically).

difference between serialization and database storage

What is difference between serialization and database storage In java? Doesnt serialization actually mean storing data in a database on server?
Let's think of the database like a bowl.
If you want to keep stuff from going everywhere, you put it in the bowl.
Your stuff is the data you want to store. Right now it's out there, on the table, in a box.
So we're going to take the stuff out of that box. The problem is, the stuff in our box probably won't fit into the bowl. How do we fix that?
We need to change it into the type of object that will fit into our bowl. We need to serialize it.
Our serialized data will fit in the bowl now. So we take our serialized data and we pour it into the bowl, and we have the most important meal of the day.
In case this was all really complicated. Simplified: to serialize is to change, and a database is a place to store stuff. Often, you change stuff before you store it.
Serialization can be used to prepare an object for database storage - it is a the process of converting an object into a storable or transmittable format, such as a string or a stream of bytes.
We can't store a java object into most normal storage types as-is - but if we for instance serialize it into JSON we can store it. We can then retrieve the JSON at a later point from the storage and deserialize it to get back an object the same as our original object, given that the serialization and deserialization is properly implemented.
Of course, this doesn't have to entail database storage - having the object serialized into a JSON stream for instance also allows us to transmit it over the internet to be deserialized on another computer.
No. Not at all. Serialization in Java is an API which generates a storeable version of an object that you can later load back from disk (or wherever you store it) and make it back into an object with (hopefully!) the same state as it once had. There are alternatives to it such as Google Protobufs which are better for networked applications, but it is good enough for most simple uses.
Serialization is the process of converting a data structure into a form that can be persisted (saved on a hard drive) in any way. It can be binary, xml, plain text, html, ... usually the goal is to be able to deserialize, that is restore back the state of your data structure at the time it was persisted.
A database is just the place (and not the way) where you store your data.

writing data in to files with java

I am writing a server in java that allows clients to play a game similar to 20 questions. The game itself is basically a binary tree with nodes that are questions about an object and leaves that are guesses at the object's identity. When the game guesses wrong it needs to be able to get the right answer from the player and add it to the tree. This data is then saved to a random access file.
The question is: How do you go about representing a tree within a file so that the data can be reaccessed as a tree at a later time.
If you know where I can find information on keeping data structures like trees organized as such when writing/reading to files then please link it. Thanks a lot.
Thanks for the quick answers everyone. This is a school project so it has some odd requirements like using random access files and telnet.
This data is then saved to a random access file.
That's the hard way to solve your problem (the "random access" bit, I mean).
The problem you are really trying to solve is how to persist a "complicated" data structure. In fact, there are a number of ways that this can be done. Here are some of them ...
Use Java persistence. This is simple to implement; make sure that your data structure is serializable, and then its just a few lines of code to serialize and few more lines to deserialize. The downsides are:
Serialized objects can be fragile in the face of code changes.
Serialization is not incremental. You write/read the whole graph each time.
If you have multiple separate serialized graphs, you need some scheme to name and manage them.
Use XML. This is more work to implement than Java persistence, but it has the advantage of being less fragile. And if something does go wrong, there's a chance you can fix it with XSLT or a text editor. (There are XML "binding" libraries that eliminate a lot of the glue coding.)
Use an SQL database. This addresses all of the downsides of Java persistence, but involves more coding ... and using a different computational model to access the persistent data (query versus graph navigation).
Use a database and an Object Relational Mapping technology; e.g. a JPA or JDO implementation. (Hibernate is a popular choice). These bridge between the database and in-memory views of data in a more or less transparent fashion, and avoids a lot of the glue code that you need to write in the SQL database and XML cases.
I think you're looking for serialization. Try this:
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Programming/serialization/
As mentioned, serialization is what you are looking for. It allows you to write an object to a file, and read it back later with minimal effort. The file will automatically be read back in as your object type. This makes things much easier than trying to store the object yourself using XML.
Java serialization has some pitfalls (like when you update your class). I would serialize in a text format. Json is my first choice here but xml and yaml would work as well.
This way you would have a file that doesn't rely on the binary version of your class.
There are several java libraries: http://www.json.org
Some examples:
http://code.google.com/p/json-simple/wiki/DecodingExamples
http://code.google.com/p/json-simple/wiki/EncodingExamples
And to save and read from the file you can use the Commons Io:
import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtis;
import java.io.File;
...
File dataFile = new File("yourfile.json");
String data = FileUtils.readFileToString(dataFile);
FileUtils.writeStringToFile(dataFile, content);

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