value of a static variable on being serialized

[Alicia Logan]

Suppose i have a class with a static variable i = 10. Now i serialize this class and write the object of this class to a file. What will be value of i?

[Joanne Neal]

Try it and see.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

The value of the static variable won't be serialized. When the object is deserialized into a new JVM, assuming the class hadn't already been loaded, the class will first be loaded normally. That means that any static initializers will be executed, so that the value of that static variables will be whatever it is right after the class is loaded. If the class had already been loaded, then the static variable won't be affected by the object being deserialized.