java Updated May 14, 2020 1 min read by mkyong 11 comments

Java – How to generate serialVersionUID

This article shows you a few ways to generate the serialVersionUID for serialization class.

1. serialver

JDK has a built-in command serialver to generate a serialVersionUID automatically.

In this example, we use serialver to generate a serialVersionUID for an Address class.

Terminal


$ serialver Address

Address:    static final long serialVersionUID = -687991492884005033L;

2. Eclispe IDE

For Eclipse IDE, move the mouse over the serialization class, or click on the serialization class and press CTRL + 1.

3. Intellij IDEA

Unlinke Eclipse IDE, we need to enable the auto generate serialVersionUID option manually. Refer to this guide – How to generate serialVersionUID in Intellij IDEA

4. 1L

Puts serialVersionUID=1L; It should be sufficient in most cases.


private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

Further Reading
What is serialVersionUID

References

Written by mkyong

Software Engineer • Writer • Dad

20+ years hands-on, writing about Java, Spring, and AI. Every code example here is tested.

All posts by mkyong

11 comments on “Java – How to generate serialVersionUID”

Jepa
October 13, 2020 at 2:03 pm

Netbeans ???

Reply
Vidhi
April 18, 2020 at 12:49 am

Thanks for this

Reply
geetansh
April 25, 2017 at 7:05 pm

Very nice..

Reply
lova
March 8, 2017 at 4:53 pm

Nice tutorial.. its good Help for the Beginners

Reply
Luis Eduardo Pinheiro
September 9, 2014 at 12:10 pm

Thanks, can better explain private static final long serialVersionUID = -5371928597516312539L;

Reply
Wang Zhengyi
June 23, 2014 at 1:49 pm

thanks, this is very useful for me!

Reply
Brennen
October 6, 2012 at 6:39 am

Thanks this helped me a lot, as I was trying to get it through batch files…
I can now find it with the click of a button in eclipse.

Reply
????
June 18, 2012 at 6:56 pm

thx,very useful.

Reply

jason

August 1, 2011 at 2:54 pm

another way to generate serialVersionUID(only for jdk1.6 or higher) :

		// compile the java source code in the memory
		JavaCompiler compiler = ToolProvider.getSystemJavaCompiler();
		DiagnosticCollector diagnostics = new DiagnosticCollector();
		JavaFileObject file = new JavaSourceFromString("com.xx.yy.HelloWord", "java source string here");
		Iterable compilationUnits = Arrays.asList(file);
		JavaCompiler.CompilationTask task = compiler.getTask(null, null, diagnostics, null, null, compilationUnits);
		if (task.call()) {
			ObjectStreamClass osc = ObjectStreamClass.lookupAny(Class.forName("com.xx.yy.HelloWord"));
			long svuid = osc.getSerialVersionUID();
		}
======================================
public class JavaSourceFromString extends SimpleJavaFileObject {

	private String code;

	public JavaSourceFromString(String name, String code) {
		super(URI.create("string:///" + name.replace('.', '/') + Kind.SOURCE.extension), Kind.SOURCE);
		this.code = code;
	}

	public CharSequence getCharContent(boolean ignoreEncodingErrors) {
		return code;
	}
}

Sufyan Shoaib
February 18, 2011 at 7:38 pm

Thanks, helped me.

Reply
Mohamed
April 29, 2010 at 6:23 pm

Hi,

In Eclipse wa can also do that for a set of classes :

ource Cleanup…->Custome Profile->Missing Code->Add serial version ID

Thx.

Reply