Serialize image to a String

Question

Good friends of the forum.

I've been searching a lot, and I could not find how to serialize an image and pass it to a String in android.

as might be not so, If someone knows and wants to inform me I would appreciate very much!.

Why do you want to "serialize an image and pass it to a String"? — CommonsWare, Apr 30 '12 at 22:04
Take a look at this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2781545/convert-image-to-base64-string-using-java — Marcelo, Apr 30 '12 at 22:05
I need to send it to a Web Service using XML. I need to send the image into a label (Picture Serialized) field> and many other labels and their contents. — JulioStyle88, Apr 30 '12 at 22:07
The base64 is an option, but would like to send the image smaller than base64 — JulioStyle88, Apr 30 '12 at 22:09
possible duplicate of [How to convert a image into Base64 string?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4830711/how-to-convert-a-image-into-base64-string) — David Snabel-Caunt, Apr 30 '12 at 22:11
Find some other Web service that takes your approach, and do what they do. If you cannot find some other Web service that takes your approach, this should be **A REALLY BIG HINT** that your approach is flawed. — CommonsWare, Apr 30 '12 at 22:34

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 30 '12 at 22:33

Although the java.awt.Image class is not (does not implement) java.io.Serializable, javax.swing.ImageIcon is. Because of this, you can serialize it as follows:

ImageIcon myImage; // declare somewhere
ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(baos);
oos.writeObject(myImage);
byte[] theBytes = baos.toByteArray();
StringBuffer buf = new StringBuffer();
for (byte b : theBytes) {
  buf.append((char) b); // cast to char, then append
}
String theString = b.toString();

I'll let you figure out how to reverse it, but here's a hint: instead of OutputStream classes, use InputStream classes.

There is no Awt or Swing on Android. Just saying :). – Brayden Apr 30 '12 at 22:46 — Brayden, Apr 30 '12 at 22:46
Oh. My bad. Didn't notice that it was Android. :) – wchargin May 01 '12 at 20:11 — wchargin, May 01 '12 at 20:11

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:11

1

You could read the bytes of the image to a byte[] and then encode the byte[] using Base64, Here is how.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:11

Community

1
1

answered Apr 30 '12 at 22:53

Óscar López

215,818
33
288
367

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 08 '12 at 22:40

Base64 will be the most efficient way to reliably transfer binary data (such as an image) in a string.

However, since you are requesting something smaller, you may consider base64 encoding your image, then compressing the resultant string, then base64 encoding that...

It saves you a few bytes, but not many. And in some cases it may even make the result larger.

If you have control of both the server and the client, you should consider creating another interface that would allow you to send bytes.

Serialize image to a String

3 Answers3

Linked