serialization - What is Serial Version ID in Java?

Question

(This question already has answers here): question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2258676/what-is-serial-version-id-in-java

Answer 1

The Serial Version ID is used when serializing and deserializing an object. Java recognizes if the bytes you want to deserialize match the local class version. If not it will throw an exception.

This is important when doing RMI or persisting object structures.

There's a very good description about serializing in the javadoc of Serializable.