Save ArrayList to SharedPreferences

Question

I have an ArrayList with custom objects. Each custom object contains a variety of strings and numbers. I need the array to stick around even if the user leaves the activity and then wants to come back at a later time, however I don't need the array available after the application has been closed completely. I save a lot of other objects this way by using the SharedPreferences but I can't figure out how to save my entire array this way. Is this possible? Maybe SharedPreferences isn't the way to go about this? Is there a simpler method?

Answer 1

Saving and retrieving the ArrayList From SharedPreference

 public static void addToPreference(String id,Context context) {
        SharedPreferences sharedPreferences = context.getSharedPreferences(Constants.MyPreference, Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
        ArrayList<String> list = getListFromPreference(context);
        if (!list.contains(id)) {
            list.add(id);
            SharedPreferences.Editor edit = sharedPreferences.edit();
            Set<String> set = new HashSet<>();
            set.addAll(list);
            edit.putStringSet(Constant.LIST, set);
            edit.commit();

        }
    }
    public static ArrayList<String> getListFromPreference(Context context) {
        SharedPreferences sharedPreferences = context.getSharedPreferences(Constants.MyPreference, Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
        Set<String> set = sharedPreferences.getStringSet(Constant.LIST, null);
        ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
        if (set != null) {
            list = new ArrayList<>(set);
        }
        return list;
    }

Answer 2

I have read all answers above. That is all correct but i found a more easy solution as below:

1. Saving String List in shared-preference>>

   public static void setSharedPreferenceStringList(Context pContext, String pKey, List<String> pData) {
   SharedPreferences.Editor editor = pContext.getSharedPreferences(Constants.APP_PREFS, Activity.MODE_PRIVATE).edit();
   editor.putInt(pKey + "size", pData.size());
   editor.commit();
   
   for (int i = 0; i < pData.size(); i++) {
       SharedPreferences.Editor editor1 = pContext.getSharedPreferences(Constants.APP_PREFS, Activity.MODE_PRIVATE).edit();
       editor1.putString(pKey + i, (pData.get(i)));
       editor1.commit();
   }
   

   }

2. and for getting String List from Shared-preference>>

   public static List<String> getSharedPreferenceStringList(Context pContext, String pKey) {
   int size = pContext.getSharedPreferences(Constants.APP_PREFS, Activity.MODE_PRIVATE).getInt(pKey + "size", 0);
   List<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
   for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
       list.add(pContext.getSharedPreferences(Constants.APP_PREFS, Activity.MODE_PRIVATE).getString(pKey + i, ""));
   }
   return list;
   }
   

Here Constants.APP_PREFS is the name of the file to open; can not contain path separators.

Answer 3

You can convert it to JSON String and store the string in the SharedPreferences.

Answer 4

You could refer the serializeKey() and deserializeKey() functions from FacebookSDK's SharedPreferencesTokenCache class. It converts the supportedType into the JSON object and store the JSON string into SharedPreferences. You could download SDK from here

private void serializeKey(String key, Bundle bundle, SharedPreferences.Editor editor)
    throws JSONException {
    Object value = bundle.get(key);
    if (value == null) {
        // Cannot serialize null values.
        return;
    }

    String supportedType = null;
    JSONArray jsonArray = null;
    JSONObject json = new JSONObject();

    if (value instanceof Byte) {
        supportedType = TYPE_BYTE;
        json.put(JSON_VALUE, ((Byte)value).intValue());
    } else if (value instanceof Short) {
        supportedType = TYPE_SHORT;
        json.put(JSON_VALUE, ((Short)value).intValue());
    } else if (value instanceof Integer) {
        supportedType = TYPE_INTEGER;
        json.put(JSON_VALUE, ((Integer)value).intValue());
    } else if (value instanceof Long) {
        supportedType = TYPE_LONG;
        json.put(JSON_VALUE, ((Long)value).longValue());
    } else if (value instanceof Float) {
        supportedType = TYPE_FLOAT;
        json.put(JSON_VALUE, ((Float)value).doubleValue());
    } else if (value instanceof Double) {
        supportedType = TYPE_DOUBLE;
        json.put(JSON_VALUE, ((Double)value).doubleValue());
    } else if (value instanceof Boolean) {
        supportedType = TYPE_BOOLEAN;
        json.put(JSON_VALUE, ((Boolean)value).booleanValue());
    } else if (value instanceof Character) {
        supportedType = TYPE_CHAR;
        json.put(JSON_VALUE, value.toString());
    } else if (value instanceof String) {
        supportedType = TYPE_STRING;
        json.put(JSON_VALUE, (String)value);
    } else {
        // Optimistically create a JSONArray. If not an array type, we can null
        // it out later
        jsonArray = new JSONArray();
        if (value instanceof byte[]) {
            supportedType = TYPE_BYTE_ARRAY;
            for (byte v : (byte[])value) {
                jsonArray.put((int)v);
            }
        } else if (value instanceof short[]) {
            supportedType = TYPE_SHORT_ARRAY;
            for (short v : (short[])value) {
                jsonArray.put((int)v);
            }
        } else if (value instanceof int[]) {
            supportedType = TYPE_INTEGER_ARRAY;
            for (int v : (int[])value) {
                jsonArray.put(v);
            }
        } else if (value instanceof long[]) {
            supportedType = TYPE_LONG_ARRAY;
            for (long v : (long[])value) {
                jsonArray.put(v);
            }
        } else if (value instanceof float[]) {
            supportedType = TYPE_FLOAT_ARRAY;
            for (float v : (float[])value) {
                jsonArray.put((double)v);
            }
        } else if (value instanceof double[]) {
            supportedType = TYPE_DOUBLE_ARRAY;
            for (double v : (double[])value) {
                jsonArray.put(v);
            }
        } else if (value instanceof boolean[]) {
            supportedType = TYPE_BOOLEAN_ARRAY;
            for (boolean v : (boolean[])value) {
                jsonArray.put(v);
            }
        } else if (value instanceof char[]) {
            supportedType = TYPE_CHAR_ARRAY;
            for (char v : (char[])value) {
                jsonArray.put(String.valueOf(v));
            }
        } else if (value instanceof List<?>) {
            supportedType = TYPE_STRING_LIST;
            @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
            List<String> stringList = (List<String>)value;
            for (String v : stringList) {
                jsonArray.put((v == null) ? JSONObject.NULL : v);
            }
        } else {
            // Unsupported type. Clear out the array as a precaution even though
            // it is redundant with the null supportedType.
            jsonArray = null;
        }
    }

    if (supportedType != null) {
        json.put(JSON_VALUE_TYPE, supportedType);
        if (jsonArray != null) {
            // If we have an array, it has already been converted to JSON. So use
            // that instead.
            json.putOpt(JSON_VALUE, jsonArray);
        }

        String jsonString = json.toString();
        editor.putString(key, jsonString);
    }
}

private void deserializeKey(String key, Bundle bundle)
        throws JSONException {
    String jsonString = cache.getString(key, "{}");
    JSONObject json = new JSONObject(jsonString);

    String valueType = json.getString(JSON_VALUE_TYPE);

    if (valueType.equals(TYPE_BOOLEAN)) {
        bundle.putBoolean(key, json.getBoolean(JSON_VALUE));
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_BOOLEAN_ARRAY)) {
        JSONArray jsonArray = json.getJSONArray(JSON_VALUE);
        boolean[] array = new boolean[jsonArray.length()];
        for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
            array[i] = jsonArray.getBoolean(i);
        }
        bundle.putBooleanArray(key, array);
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_BYTE)) {
        bundle.putByte(key, (byte)json.getInt(JSON_VALUE));
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_BYTE_ARRAY)) {
        JSONArray jsonArray = json.getJSONArray(JSON_VALUE);
        byte[] array = new byte[jsonArray.length()];
        for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
            array[i] = (byte)jsonArray.getInt(i);
        }
        bundle.putByteArray(key, array);
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_SHORT)) {
        bundle.putShort(key, (short)json.getInt(JSON_VALUE));
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_SHORT_ARRAY)) {
        JSONArray jsonArray = json.getJSONArray(JSON_VALUE);
        short[] array = new short[jsonArray.length()];
        for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
            array[i] = (short)jsonArray.getInt(i);
        }
        bundle.putShortArray(key, array);
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_INTEGER)) {
        bundle.putInt(key, json.getInt(JSON_VALUE));
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_INTEGER_ARRAY)) {
        JSONArray jsonArray = json.getJSONArray(JSON_VALUE);
        int[] array = new int[jsonArray.length()];
        for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
            array[i] = jsonArray.getInt(i);
        }
        bundle.putIntArray(key, array);
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_LONG)) {
        bundle.putLong(key, json.getLong(JSON_VALUE));
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_LONG_ARRAY)) {
        JSONArray jsonArray = json.getJSONArray(JSON_VALUE);
        long[] array = new long[jsonArray.length()];
        for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
            array[i] = jsonArray.getLong(i);
        }
        bundle.putLongArray(key, array);
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_FLOAT)) {
        bundle.putFloat(key, (float)json.getDouble(JSON_VALUE));
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_FLOAT_ARRAY)) {
        JSONArray jsonArray = json.getJSONArray(JSON_VALUE);
        float[] array = new float[jsonArray.length()];
        for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
            array[i] = (float)jsonArray.getDouble(i);
        }
        bundle.putFloatArray(key, array);
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_DOUBLE)) {
        bundle.putDouble(key, json.getDouble(JSON_VALUE));
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_DOUBLE_ARRAY)) {
        JSONArray jsonArray = json.getJSONArray(JSON_VALUE);
        double[] array = new double[jsonArray.length()];
        for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
            array[i] = jsonArray.getDouble(i);
        }
        bundle.putDoubleArray(key, array);
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_CHAR)) {
        String charString = json.getString(JSON_VALUE);
        if (charString != null && charString.length() == 1) {
            bundle.putChar(key, charString.charAt(0));
        }
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_CHAR_ARRAY)) {
        JSONArray jsonArray = json.getJSONArray(JSON_VALUE);
        char[] array = new char[jsonArray.length()];
        for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
            String charString = jsonArray.getString(i);
            if (charString != null && charString.length() == 1) {
                array[i] = charString.charAt(0);
            }
        }
        bundle.putCharArray(key, array);
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_STRING)) {
        bundle.putString(key, json.getString(JSON_VALUE));
    } else if (valueType.equals(TYPE_STRING_LIST)) {
        JSONArray jsonArray = json.getJSONArray(JSON_VALUE);
        int numStrings = jsonArray.length();
        ArrayList<String> stringList = new ArrayList<String>(numStrings);
        for (int i = 0; i < numStrings; i++) {
            Object jsonStringValue = jsonArray.get(i);
            stringList.add(i, jsonStringValue == JSONObject.NULL ? null : (String)jsonStringValue);
        }
        bundle.putStringArrayList(key, stringList);
    }
}

Answer 5

The best way i have been able to find is a make a 2D Array of keys and put the custom items of the array in the 2-D array of keys and then retrieve it through the 2D arra on startup. I did not like the idea of using string set because most of the android users are still on Gingerbread and using string set requires honeycomb.

Sample Code: here ditor is the shared pref editor and rowitem is my custom object.

editor.putString(genrealfeedkey[j][1], Rowitemslist.get(j).getname());
        editor.putString(genrealfeedkey[j][2], Rowitemslist.get(j).getdescription());
        editor.putString(genrealfeedkey[j][3], Rowitemslist.get(j).getlink());
        editor.putString(genrealfeedkey[j][4], Rowitemslist.get(j).getid());
        editor.putString(genrealfeedkey[j][5], Rowitemslist.get(j).getmessage());

Answer 6

You can use serialization or Gson library to convert list to string and vice versa and then save string in preferences.

Using google's Gson library:

//Converting list to string
new Gson().toJson(list);

//Converting string to list
new Gson().fromJson(listString, CustomObjectsList.class);

Using Java serialization:

//Converting list to string
ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(bos);
oos.writeObject(list);
oos.flush();
String string = Base64.encodeToString(bos.toByteArray(), Base64.DEFAULT);
oos.close();
bos.close();
return string;

//Converting string to list
byte[] bytesArray = Base64.decode(familiarVisitsString, Base64.DEFAULT);
ByteArrayInputStream bis = new ByteArrayInputStream(bytesArray);
ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(bis);
Object clone = ois.readObject();
ois.close();
bis.close();
return (CustomObjectsList) clone;