How to generate serialVersionUID programmatically in Java?

java serialization serialversionuid
bn. picture bn. · Aug 18, 2013 · Viewed 11.7k times · Source

I am working on a project that generates Java files. I'd like to be able to optionally add the serialVersionUID as you would with the serialver tool.

Is there a way to do this when I generate the Java code, or will I need to ask the user of the tool to provide UIDs manually? To be clear, I'm not looking to do this automatically through Eclipse or the serialver tool, but to do it via Java itself.

Answer

c.s. picture c.s. · Aug 18, 2013

There is a version of the serialver tool source available from OpenJDK. It all comes down to this call:

ObjectStreamClass c = ObjectStreamClass.lookup(MyClass.class);
long serialID = c.getSerialVersionUID();
System.out.println(serialID);

In JDK 6 at least it returns the same number with serialver tool.

Related questions

What is a serialVersionUID and why should I use it?

Eclipse issues warnings when a serialVersionUID is missing. The serializable class Foo does not declare a static final serialVersionUID field of type long What is serialVersionUID and why is it important? Please show an example where missing serialVersionUID will cause …

Read More
Why generate long serialVersionUID instead of a simple 1L?

When class implements Serializable in Eclipse, I have two options: add default serialVersionUID(1L) or generated serialVersionUID(3567653491060394677L). I think that first one is cooler, but many times I saw people using the second option. Is there any reason to …

Read More
What is serialVersionUID in java, normally in exception class?

Possible Duplicate: Why should I bother about serialVersionUID? I am going through some exception handling code and i saw something named as serialVersionUID. What this uid is for?? Is it only limited to exception or can be used in all …

Read More