Converting Java Objects to Byte Array, JSON and XML
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Join For FreeConverting a Java object (a process known as serialization) to various forms such as XML, JSON, or a byte array and back into java objects is a very common requirement. This post is intended to be a quick reference for you to easily make these conversions.
Java Object to Byte Array and Back
Lets start by converting a java object into a byte array and back. The library we will be using to achieve this result is the commons lang library which you can get using the following maven dependency.
<dependency> <groupId>commons-lang</groupId> <artifactId>commons-lang</artifactId> <version>2.6</version> </dependency>
The following two functions convert a java object to a byte array and
back to java object respectively. You will need the following import:
import org.apache.commons.lang.SerializationUtils;
…
/** * Convert object to byte array * @param object * @return */ public static byte[] fromJavaToByteArray(Serializable object) { return SerializationUtils.serialize(object); } /** * Convert byte array to object * @param bytes * @return */ public static Object fromByteArrayToJava(byte[] bytes) { return SerializationUtils.deserialize(bytes); }
Java Object to JSON and Back
Next, we will convert a java object to JSON and back to java. We will
use the Jackson library for this. Use the following maven dependency.
<dependency> <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId> <artifactId>jackson-mapper-asl</artifactId> <version>1.9.12</version> </dependency>
The functions that perform the conversions.
/** * Convert object to JSON String * @param object * @return * @throws JsonGenerationException * @throws JsonMappingException * @throws IOException */ public static String fromJavaToJson(Serializable object) throws JsonGenerationException, JsonMappingException, IOException { ObjectMapper jsonMapper = new ObjectMapper(); return jsonMapper.writeValueAsString(object); } /** * Convert a JSON string to an object * @param json * @return * @throws JsonParseException * @throws JsonMappingException * @throws IOException */ public static Object fromJsonToJava(String json, Class type) throws JsonParseException, JsonMappingException, IOException { ObjectMapper jsonMapper = new ObjectMapper(); return jsonMapper.readValue(json, type); }
Java Object to XML and Back
We will use Xstream from thoughtworks to serialize to XML. Include the following maven dependency.
<dependency> <groupId>com.thoughtworks.xstream</groupId> <artifactId>xstream</artifactId> <version>1.4.4</version> </dependency>
And the one-liners to perform the conversions.
/** * Convert a java object to XML * @param object * @return */ public static String fromJavaToXML(Serializable object) { XStream xs = new XStream(); return xs.toXML(object); } /** * Convert from XML to object * @param xml * @return */ public static Object fromXMLToJava(String xml){ XStream xs = new XStream(); return xs.fromXML(xml); }
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