Java in a Nutshell, 5th Edition [Electronic resources]

ObjectInputStream deserializes objects, arrays, and other values from a stream that was previously created with an ObjectOutputStream. The readObject( ) method deserializes objects and arrays (which should then be cast to the appropriate type); various other methods read primitive data values from the stream. Note that only objects that implement the Serializable or Externalizable interface can be serialized and deserialized.

A class may implement its own private readObject(ObjectInputStream) method to customize the way it is deserialized. If you define such a method, there are several ObjectInputStream methods you can use to help deserialize the object. defaultReadObject( ) is the easiest. It reads the content of the object just as an ObjectInputStream would normally do. If you wrote additional data before or after the default object contents, you should read that data before or after calling defaultReadObject( ). When working with multiple versions or implementations of a class, you may have to deserialize a set of fields that do not match the fields of your class. In this case, give your class a static field named serialPersistentFields whose value is an array of ObjectStreamField objects that describe the fields to be deserialized. If you do this, your readObject( ) method can call readFields( ) to read the specified fields from the stream and return them in a ObjectInputStream.GetField object. See ObjectStreamField and ObjectInputStream.GetField for more details. Finally, you can call registerValidation( ) from a custom readObject( ) method. This method registers an ObjectInputValidation object (typically the object being deserialized) to be notified when a complete tree of objects has been deserialized, and the original call to the readObject( ) method of the ObjectInputStream is about to return to its caller.

The remaining methods include miscellaneous stream-manipulation methods and several protected methods for use by subclasses that want to customize the deserialization behavior of ObjectInputStream.

public class 
ObjectInputStream  extends InputStream implements ObjectInput, 
ObjectStreamConstants {
// Public Constructors
public 
ObjectInputStream (InputStream 
in ) throws IOException;  
// Protected Constructors
1.2   protected 
ObjectInputStream ( ) throws IOException, SecurityException;  
// Nested Types
1.2   public abstract static class 
GetField ; 
// Public Instance Methods
public void 
defaultReadObject ( ) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException;  
1.2   public ObjectInputStream.GetField 
readFields ( ) throws IOException, 
ClassNotFoundException;  
1.4   public Object 
readUnshared ( ) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException;  
public void 
registerValidation (ObjectInputValidation 
obj , int 
prio ) throws 
NotActiveException, InvalidObjectException;  
// Methods Implementing DataInput
public boolean 
readBoolean ( ) throws IOException;  
public byte 
readByte ( ) throws IOException;  
public char 
readChar ( ) throws IOException;  
public double 
readDouble ( ) throws IOException;  
public float 
readFloat ( ) throws IOException;  
public void 
readFully (byte[ ] 
buf ) throws IOException;  
public void 
readFully (byte[ ] 
buf , int 
off , int 
len ) throws IOException;  
public int 
readInt ( ) throws IOException;  
public long 
readLong ( ) throws IOException;  
public short 
readShort ( ) throws IOException;  
public int 
readUnsignedByte ( ) throws IOException;  
public int 
readUnsignedShort ( ) throws IOException;  
public String 
readUTF ( ) throws IOException;  
public int 
skipBytes (int 
len ) throws IOException;  
// Methods Implementing ObjectInput
public int 
available ( ) throws IOException;  
public void 
close ( ) throws IOException;  
public int 
read ( ) throws IOException;  
public int 
read (byte[ ] 
buf , int 
off , int 
len ) throws IOException;  
public final Object 
readObject ( ) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException;  
// Protected Instance Methods
protected boolean 
enableResolveObject (boolean 
enable ) throws SecurityException;  
1.3   protected ObjectStreamClass 
readClassDescriptor ( ) throws IOException, 
ClassNotFoundException;  
1.2   protected Object 
readObjectOverride ( ) throws IOException, 
ClassNotFoundException;     constant
protected void 
readStreamHeader ( ) throws IOException, StreamCorruptedException;  
protected Class<?> 
resolveClass (ObjectStreamClass 
desc ) throws IOException, 
ClassNotFoundException;  
protected Object 
resolveObject (Object 
obj ) throws IOException;  
1.3   protected Class<?> 
resolveProxyClass (String[ ] 
interfaces ) throws IOException, 
ClassNotFoundException;  
// Deprecated Public Methods
#     public String 
readLine ( ) throws IOException;              Implements:DataInput
}