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Testing the FlatBuffers Java libraries
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Using the FlatBuffers Java library
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Storing dictionaries in a FlatBuffer
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<a href="https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/edit/master/docs/source/languages/java.md" title="Edit this page" class="md-content__button md-icon" rel="edit">
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<h1 id="flatbuffers_guide_use_java">Use in Java</h1>
<h2 id="before-you-get-started">Before you get started</h2>
<p>Before diving into the FlatBuffers usage in Java, it should be noted that
the <a href="../../tutorial/">Tutorial</a> page has a complete guide to
general FlatBuffers usage in all of the supported languages (including Java).
This page is designed to cover the nuances of FlatBuffers usage,
specific to Java.</p>
<p>You should also have read the <a href="../../building/">Building</a>
documentation to build <code>flatc</code> and should be familiar with
<a href="../../flatc/">Using the schema compiler</a> and
<a href="../../schema/">Writing a schema</a>.</p>
<h2 id="flatbuffers-java-code-location">FlatBuffers Java code location</h2>
<p>The code for the FlatBuffers Java library can be found at
<code>flatbuffers/java/com/google/flatbuffers</code>. You can browse the library on the
<a href="https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/tree/master/
java/com/google/flatbuffers">FlatBuffers GitHub page</a>.</p>
<h2 id="testing-the-flatbuffers-java-libraries">Testing the FlatBuffers Java libraries</h2>
<p>The code to test the libraries can be found at <code>flatbuffers/tests</code>.</p>
<p>The test code for Java is located in <a href="https://github.com/google
/flatbuffers/blob/master/tests/JavaTest.java">JavaTest.java</a>.</p>
<p>To run the tests, use either <a href="https://github.com/google/
flatbuffers/blob/master/tests/JavaTest.sh">JavaTest.sh</a> or <a href="https://github.com/
google/flatbuffers/blob/master/tests/JavaTest.bat">JavaTest.bat</a>, depending on your operating
system.</p>
<p><em>Note: These scripts require that <a href="https://www.oracle.com/java/index.html">Java</a>
is installed.</em></p>
<h2 id="using-the-flatbuffers-java-library">Using the FlatBuffers Java library</h2>
<p><em>Note: See <a href="../../tutorial/">Tutorial</a> for a more in-depth
example of how to use FlatBuffers in Java.</em></p>
<p>FlatBuffers supports reading and writing binary FlatBuffers in Java.</p>
<p>To use FlatBuffers in your own code, first generate Java classes from your
schema with the <code>--java</code> option to <code>flatc</code>.
Then you can include both FlatBuffers and the generated code to read
or write a FlatBuffer.</p>
<p>For example, here is how you would read a FlatBuffer binary file in Java:
First, import the library and generated code. Then, you read a FlatBuffer binary
file into a <code>byte[]</code>. You then turn the <code>byte[]</code> into a <code>ByteBuffer</code>, which you
pass to the <code>getRootAsMyRootType</code> function:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="w"> </span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">MyGame.Example.*</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">com.google.flatbuffers.FlatBufferBuilder</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="c1">// This snippet ignores exceptions for brevity.</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="n">File</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">file</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">=</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="k">new</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">File</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;monsterdata_test.mon&quot;</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="n">RandomAccessFile</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">f</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">=</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="k">new</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">RandomAccessFile</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">file</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">&quot;r&quot;</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="kt">byte</span><span class="o">[]</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">data</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">=</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="k">new</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="kt">byte</span><span class="o">[</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="kt">int</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="n">f</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="na">length</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">]</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="n">f</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="na">readFully</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">data</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="n">f</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="na">close</span><span class="p">();</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="n">ByteBuffer</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">bb</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">=</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">ByteBuffer</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="na">wrap</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">data</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="n">Monster</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">monster</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">=</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">Monster</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="na">getRootAsMonster</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">bb</span><span class="p">);</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Now you can access the data from the <code>Monster monster</code>:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="w"> </span><span class="kt">short</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">hp</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">=</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">monster</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="na">hp</span><span class="p">();</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="n">Vec3</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">pos</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">=</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">monster</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="na">pos</span><span class="p">();</span>
</code></pre></div>
<h2 id="storing-dictionaries-in-a-flatbuffer">Storing dictionaries in a FlatBuffer</h2>
<p>FlatBuffers doesn't support dictionaries natively, but there is support to
emulate their behavior with vectors and binary search, which means you
can have fast lookups directly from a FlatBuffer without having to unpack
your data into a <code>Dictionary</code> or similar.</p>
<p>To use it:
- Designate one of the fields in a table as the "key" field. You do this
by setting the <code>key</code> attribute on this field, e.g.
<code>name:string (key)</code>.
You may only have one key field, and it must be of string or scalar type.
- Write out tables of this type as usual, collect their offsets in an
array.
- Instead of calling standard generated method,
e.g.: <code>Monster.createTestarrayoftablesVector</code>,
call <code>createSortedVectorOfTables</code> (from the <code>FlatBufferBuilder</code> object).
which will first sort all offsets such that the tables they refer to
are sorted by the key field, then serialize it.
- Now when you're accessing the FlatBuffer, you can use
the <code>ByKey</code> accessor to access elements of the vector, e.g.:
<code>monster.testarrayoftablesByKey("Frodo")</code>.
which returns an object of the corresponding table type,
or <code>null</code> if not found.
<code>ByKey</code> performs a binary search, so should have a similar
speed to <code>Dictionary</code>, though may be faster because of better caching.
<code>ByKey</code> only works if the vector has been sorted, it will
likely not find elements if it hasn't been sorted.</p>
<h2 id="text-parsing">Text parsing</h2>
<p>There currently is no support for parsing text (Schema's and JSON) directly
from Java, though you could use the C++ parser through native call
interfaces available to each language. Please see the
C++ documentation for more on text parsing.</p>
<p><br></p>
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