Serializing

[shashanksworld]

hey I have a doubt if I serialize an object of class Dog say d
and close the ObjectoutputStream .close();then i nullify the d refrence variable
and read in d as
try
{
FileOutputStream fos=new FileOutputStream("serial.txt");
ObjectOutputStream os=new ObjectOutputStream(fos);
os.writeObject(d);
os.close();

}
catch (Exception ioe)
{ ioe.printStackTrace(); }
d=null;//as d is written it should be freed now
try
{
FileInputStream fis =new FileInputStream("serial.txt");
ObjectInputStream ois=new ObjectInputStream(fis);
d=(Dog)ois.readObject();//using the refrence again.

ois.close();
System.out.println((d.getCollar()).getSize());
}


catch(Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
why does this give null pointer exception according to serialization concept the the readObject function retrieves the saved object then whats the problem in now assigning it to new reference variable.

[r035198x]

Use sysout to print out the values of d AND d.getCollar before calling (d.getCollar()).getSize().

[shashanksworld]

FileInputStream fis =new FileInputStream("serial.txt");
ObjectInputStream ois=new ObjectInputStream(fis);
d=(Dog)ois.readObject();
ois.close();
System.out.println(d);
System.out.println((d.getCollar()).getSize());

it got
Dog@de6ced
java.lang.NullPointerException
at test030.main(test030.java:58)
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
at test030.main(test030.java:66)

[Tolls]

They did say "d.getCollar()" as well...
It appears that is null.

ETA: Also check whether getCollar() returns a null before serializing the object...

[JosAH]

They did say "d.getCollar()" as well...
It appears that is null.

ETA: Also check whether getCollar() returns a null before serializing the object...

It returns null and the dog object isn't null. See the output the OP showed; the dog doesn't have a collar.

kind regards,

Jos

[Tolls]

Well, yes.
I assumed they were assuming it had a collar to begin with...and not that it would magically gain one through the power of serialization.

By the Power of Serlialization!
**Ka-BOOM**
:)

[JosAH]

[QUOTE=Tolls;112014]Well, yes.
I assumed they were assuming it had a collar to begin with...and not that it would magically gain one through the power of serialization.

Well, I assumed that you assumed that they assumed ... oh, forget all about it; the object was successfully de/serialized while the dog didn't have a collar; problem solved ;-)

kind regards,

Jos

[Tolls]

Unless it was a transient collar...

...why yes, that is my coat...