Hi, I wanna serialize a List<E> that I implemented, what is the right approach of doing it, us...

# serialization

[why]

Hi, I wanna serialize a List<E> that I implemented, what is the right approach of doing it, using the prebuilt serializers (like ArrayListSerializer, ListLikeSerializer or even AbstractCollectionSerializer), I’m having so much trouble with these classes, can anyone help?

[Mranders]

Assuming you want to serialize the list to json, you can do something like this:

@Serializable
class E(val s: String)

fun main() {
    val listOfEs = listOf(E("foo"), E("bar"), E("baz"))
    val eListSerializer = ListSerializer(E.serializer())
    val serialized = Json.Default.encodeToString(eListSerializer, listOfEs)
    println(serialized)
}

Result: [{"s":"foo"},{"s":"bar"},{"s":"baz"}]

[why]

Hi thanks for your reply but this is not what I want exactly, given this

import kotlinx.serialization.encodeToString
 import kotlinx.serialization.json.Json
 
 val listOfEs = listOf(1, 2, 34)
 val serialized = Json.Default.encodeToString(listOfEs)
 println(serialized) // result: [1,2,34]

I wanna be able to do this :

import kotlinx.serialization.encodeToString
 import kotlinx.serialization.json.Json
 
 val myList = MyListImplementation(1, 2, 34)
 val serialized = Json.Default.encodeToString(myList)
 println(serialized) // result: [1,2,34]

[why]

I wanna have my list supported just like the native ones : )

[why]

the problem is that prebuilt collections serializers are internal : (

[why]

given that, maybe there is another way of doing it without rewriting the whole thing?

[sandwwraith]

You can wrap your serializer around instance of prebuilt one. The classes are internal, but we have factory functions like ListSerializer(...)

[why]

back.. thanks a lot that’s what I was looking for : )