Is it possible to convert java primitive and reference object types to a byte array as same as user-defined objects?

Question

I want to write a class to serialize all of the objects in my code (primitive, reference and user-defined). For the user-defined objects I have written the following code:

static void serialize(Object object, OutputStream outputStream) {
    ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
    ObjectOutput objectOutput = null;
    try {
        objectOutput = new ObjectOutputStream(bos);
        objectOutput.writeObject(object);
        objectOutput.flush();
        byte[] bytes = bos.toByteArray();
        outputStream.write(bytes);

    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } finally {
        try {
            outputStream.close();
            bos.close();
        } catch (IOException ex) {
            // ignore close exception
        }
    }
}

is it possible to reuse the same method for primitive and reference object types and what should I change in the method?

Answer 1

From the fact that you don't really do anything with the ID type you can just simplify it to Object . Also if you happen to use Java7 you can make use of the try-with-resources statement. The FileNotFoundException also seems to not be used. So the final version of your serialize method would look like:

static void serialize(Object o, OutputStream outputStream){
    try(ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream(); 
        ObjectOutput objectOutput = new ObjectOutputStream(bos)){
        objectOutput.writeObject(o);
        objectOutput.flush();
        byte[] bytes = bos.toByteArray();
        outputStream.write(bytes);
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } 
}

That way you can call this method with what ever object you desire to serialize:

// With String
serialize("Hello World!", out);

// With int
serialize(2547, out);

// with byte-array
serialize(new byte[]{1,3,5,6}, out);

// with userdefined object
serialize(new MyObject(), out);

Answer 2

is it possible to reuse the same method for primitive [types]

Yes.

and reference object types

You are already doing so.

and what should I change in the method?

Nothing. Just call it with whatever you like. Autoboxing will take care of it for you.

Why you are declaring throws FileNotFoundException from a method that cannot throw it is another mystery.