Initialization of transient variables - not

Question

I have some code similar to
public class FooBar implements Serializable {
    String foo;
    transient String bar = "bar";
}I notice that when I deserialize FooBar, bar is null. This is not what I would have expected or wanted. Doesn't new get called to construct then new FooBar, then the initializers are run, before the deserialization of foo happens?
I'm using the XStream XML serialization library. Is this behaviour library specific, or has serialization and deserialization always worked this way?

Answer 1

I notice that when I deserialize FooBar, bar is null.
This is not what I would have expected or wanted.
Doesn't new get called to construct then new FooBar,
then the initializers are run, before the
deserialization of foo happens?Nope. Deserialization doesn't invoke constructors (nor initializer blocks). You can create you own readObject (if I recall correctly) method in that class that will get called when it is created via deserialization. In that method, you can do whatever post-serialization you want to do, such as setting that bar member.