Is it possible to define a deserializer for a clas...

# serialization

[Mendess]

Is it possible to define a deserializer for a class that can deserialize from 2 different unambiguous formats? Example:

{ "createdAt": 11112222333 }
{ "createdAt": { "seconds": 179879, "nanoseconds": 1201800000 } }

class DateTime(....)

@Serializable
class Payload(val createdAt: DateTime)

(serialization is not needed)

[Dominaezzz]

Yes this is possible. Just deserialise to JsonElement and do the rest yourself.

[Mendess]

ah, that makes sense

[Mendess]

let me give that a go

[Dominaezzz]

Depending on what DateTime looks like, you may be able to get kotlinx-serialisation to do more of the work for you.

[Mendess]

it has a val milliseconds: Long in it

[Mendess]

I intend to truncate the nanosecond precision I get from the json

[Dominaezzz]

Ah fairs. You'll have to DIY then. I was going to suggest surrogate types.

[Mendess]

is there a better way to do this detail?

[Dominaezzz]

I though you didn't want to serialize?

[Mendess]

I don't but I have to implement both methods of the KSerializer interface, no?

[Dominaezzz]

Nope, just the one you need.

[Dominaezzz]

You can leave that one as is,.

[Mendess]

🤔

[Dominaezzz]

Don't remove the method lol, just leave it with the exception,.

[Mendess]

ah okay, that's what I meant if there was a better way of doing it besides the exception 😄

[Dominaezzz]

Ahhh I see. Maybe `TODO()`` but 🤷🏼 .

[Mendess]

yeah, TODO implies it will be implemented, I guess this conveys more of a "I won't do it"

[Dominaezzz]

Did you succeed?

[Mendess]

I did, tho I'm a bit sad that I can't at compile time guarantee that there are no attempts to serialize DateTime

[Dominaezzz]

Ah yeah, can understand that.

[archecraft]

Isn't there also a DeserializationStrategy interface? I think KSerializer just implements DeserializationStrategy and SerializationStrategy

[Dominaezzz]

Yes but it has limited use cases, this is not one of them. The @Serializable needs the full KSerializer interface.