Question

I have a simple data structure which is serialized and deserialized.
Upon deserialization, I wish that the data structure itself makes a subsequent processing step. In our case, it should simply call String.intern() on all the strings it contains.

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Preemptive answers to unrelated questions:

Why don’t you simply do this after normally deserializing the object?

1. This object is serialized/deserialized in a lot of places
2. This data structure is part of bigger objects which are serialized/deserialized, so you would have to browse any encapsulating object after deserialization as well
3. Other developpers using the framework might not be aware or forget this step, and would result in a huge bug magnet
4. It would be ugly

Why do you use String.intern() in the first place?

For performance reasons. We do massive text processing and computation requiring this.

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In other words, in:

public void readExternal(ObjectInput in) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException;

Is there a way to invoke the default/standard deserialization inside? (So that we can just add our little step afterwards)

Thanks!

Arnaud

Answer 1

Yes – in.defaultReadObject().

But you’d have to use readObject(..) not readExternal(..)

Note that if you use Externalizable, you are on your own. You can use Serializable and customize partially the output.