serialPersistentFields

Defining Serializable Fields for a Class

The serializable fields of a class can be defined two different ways. Default serializable fields of a class are defined to be the non-transient and non-static fields. This default computation can be overridden by declaring a special field in the Serializable class, serialPersistentFields. This field must be initialized with an array of ObjectStreamField objects that list the names and types of the serializable fields. The modifiers for the field are required to be private, static, and final. If the field’s value is null or is otherwise not an instance of ObjectStreamField[], or if the field does not have the required modifiers, then the behavior is as if the field were not declared at all.For example, the following declaration duplicates the default behavior.

class List implements Serializable {
    List next;

    private static final ObjectStreamField[] serialPersistentFields
                 = {new ObjectStreamField("next", List.class)};