How to Pass a Serializable Object from One Activity to Another Activity in Android?

While developing an application in Android, the developer can create more than one activity in the application. So, there can be many activities and can be a case to transfer data from one activity to the other. In such cases, Intents are used. Intents let the user jump from one activity to the other, or go from the current activity to the next activity. While going from one activity to the other, we can pass parameters like strings, integers, etc from the current activity and fetch them in the next activity.

In this article, we will show you how you can create a serializable object, pass it from one activity and fetch it in the next activity.

Step by Step Implementation

Step 1: Create a New Project in Android Studio

To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio. We demonstrated the application in Kotlin, so make sure you select Kotlin as the primary language while creating a New Project.

Step 2: Create a serializable object (MyCustomObject.kt)

Kotlin

import java.io.Serializable

class MyCustomObject: Serializable {

    var name = ""
    var id = 0
    var place = ""

    constructor(mName: String, mId: Int, mPlace: String){
        name = mName
        id = mId
        place = mPlace
    }

    constructor()
}

Java

import java.io.Serializable;

// A class to define a custom object with properties name, id, and place.
class MyCustomObject implements Serializable {

    // Variables to store the values of the object.
    private String name = "";
    private int id = 0;
    private String place = "";

    // Constructor to set values for the object properties.
    public MyCustomObject(String mName, int mId, String mPlace){
        name = mName;
        id = mId;
        place = mPlace;
    }

    // Empty constructor
    public MyCustomObject() {}
}

Step 3: Add a button in the layout of the first activity (activity_main.xml)

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/btnSend"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerInParent="true"
        android:text="Send" />

</RelativeLayout>

Step 4: Program to pass the object to a new activity (MainActivity.kt)

Kotlin

import android.content.Intent
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import android.os.Bundle
import android.widget.Button
import android.widget.EditText
import java.io.Serializable

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        val btn = findViewById<Button>(R.id.btnSend)

        btn.setOnClickListener {
            val intent = Intent(this, SecondActivity::class.java)
            val passingObject = MyCustomObject()
            passingObject.name = "Geek"
            passingObject.id = 1
            passingObject.place = "India"
            intent.putExtra("object", passingObject)
            startActivity(intent)
        }
    }
}

Java

import android.content.Intent;
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;
import java.io.Serializable;

// Main Activity class for the app
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        // Get a reference to the button
        Button btn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnSend);

        // Set the onClickListener for the button
        btn.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                // Create an Intent to start the SecondActivity
                Intent intent = new Intent(MainActivity.this, SecondActivity.class);

                // Create an instance of the custom object to pass
                MyCustomObject passingObject = new MyCustomObject();
                passingObject.name = "Geek";
                passingObject.id = 1;
                passingObject.place = "India";

                // Add the custom object as an extra to the Intent
                intent.putExtra("object", (Serializable) passingObject);
                startActivity(intent);
            }
        });
    }
}

Step 5: Create a new activity SecondActivity.kt to catch the passed object and add a TextView in the layout of the second activity activity_second.xml

Kotlin

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import android.os.Bundle
import android.widget.TextView

class SecondActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_second)

        val myIntent = intent
        val derivedObject = myIntent.getSerializableExtra("object") as MyCustomObject

        val myTextView = findViewById<TextView>(R.id.tv1)
        myTextView.append(derivedObject.name + "\n")
        myTextView.append(derivedObject.id.toString() + "\n")
        myTextView.append(derivedObject.place + "\n")
    }
}

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/tv1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:layout_centerInParent="true"/>

</RelativeLayout>

Java

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class SecondActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_second);

        // Get the intent from the MainActivity
        Intent myIntent = getIntent();

        // Get the MyCustomObject from the intent's extras
        MyCustomObject derivedObject = (MyCustomObject) myIntent.getSerializableExtra("object");

        // Get reference to the TextView
        TextView myTextView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.tv1);

        // Append the data from the MyCustomObject to the TextView
        myTextView.append(derivedObject.getName() + "\n");
        myTextView.append(Integer.toString(derivedObject.getId()) + "\n");
        myTextView.append(derivedObject.getPlace() + "\n");
    }
}

Output: