serialization - What is the safest way to use direct byte buffers in Java?

Question

Lets sat I have an object i'd like to store in a direct byte buffer. I'd like to able access parts of the object from the direct byte buffer without de-serializing the whole object. Is there a safe way to do this?

I'm thinking you could somehow capture the byte array offsets when serializing the object, then once its been written to the direct byte buffer you would adjust these offsets according to the offset of the direct byte buffer. I'm not sure if its possible to do this...

Answer 1

The real question is not, is this possible, since it almost certainly is, but why do you want to do this in the first place?

If you just want to access a few fields from the object, the easiest way to do that will be to deserialize it and then copy those few fields out.

The only reason you might want to avoid the (de-)serialization is for speed, but if this is in one of your busy loops, then you are lost anyway. If the network (de-)serialization is the issue, then you should design your protocol better.