Create a ArrayList of data class objects from a String in Kotlin

Question

I have a Kotlin data class

data class Item (val content: String) {}

In my app I use an myData: ArrayList<Item>.

To provide persistant storage the app writes this list to a file everytime it is changed: configFile.writeText(myData.toString())

At startup it reads the file and with configfile.readFile(). The returned string look like this: [Item(content=Click #1), Item(content=Click #2)]

How can I create the arraylist from this string?

I very strongly recommend that you save the data in a structured format, such as JSON. You then use the associated parser (e.g., a JSON parser) for that format to convert the string back into objects. — CommonsWare
– CommonsWare, Commented Mar 31, 2019 at 16:11

Hemant Patel · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-31 16:11:37Z

1

You can write data in some well known format such as JSON or XML. You can still parse your written string, but JSON / XML can be preferrable.

For reading / writing JSON / XML, you can use jackson library which is quite easy to use. Here is the link for quickstart.

answered Mar 31, 2019 at 16:11

Hemant Patel

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1 Comment

As mentioned above: I decided to go with github.com/cbeust/klaxon. Thanks anyways.