Effective Java™: Programming Language Guide

Chapter 10. Serialization

This chapter concerns the object serialization API, which provides a framework for encoding objects as byte streams and reconstructing objects from their byte-stream encodings. Encoding an object as a byte stream is known as serializing the object; the reverse process is known as deserializing it. Once an object has been serialized, its encoding can be transmitted from one running virtual machine to another or stored on disk for later deserialization. Serialization provides the standard wire-level object representation for remote communication, and the standard persistent data format for the JavaBeans^™ component architecture.

Item 54: Implement Serializable judiciously

Allowing a class's instances to be serialized can be ...