Take the 2-minute tour ×

I created an instance of a custom class RestaurantList to hold my data (a list of restaurant data received from a web service as json data).

How can I save it in onSaveInstanceState?

share|improve this question
add comment

3 Answers

up vote 13 down vote accepted

Custom objects can be saved inside a Bundle when they implement the interface Parcelable. Then they can be saved via:

    public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
        outState.putParcelable("key", myObject);

Basically the following methods must be implemented in the class file:

 public class MyParcelable implements Parcelable {
     private int mData;

     public int describeContents() {
         return 0;

     /** save object in parcel */
     public void writeToParcel(Parcel out, int flags) {

     public static final Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable> CREATOR
             = new Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable>() {
         public MyParcelable createFromParcel(Parcel in) {
             return new MyParcelable(in);

         public MyParcelable[] newArray(int size) {
             return new MyParcelable[size];

     /** recreate object from parcel */
     private MyParcelable(Parcel in) {
         mData = in.readInt();
share|improve this answer
add comment

I know "that this case is cold", but because i found this thread first, when I was searching for exactly the same thing (and found an answer by now):

Imagine Bundle as an XML file. If you create a new <BUNDLE name="InstanceName" type="ClassName"> you can freely add elements and attributes in a fresh and empty namespace.

When onSaveInstance(Bundle outState) of your MainActivity is called (you can also force this in onPause), you can create a new: Bundle b = new Bundle();

Then call your (probably not inherited and not overriden) custom Method onSaveInstance(Bundle b) in your own class with your newly created Bundle b. Then (in onSaveInstance(Bundle outState)) of your MainActivity, call outState.putBundle("StringClassAndInstanceName", b);

When you find this string in onCreate, you can either use a switch/case to recreate this object or (better) have a factory function in your custom class to work with Bundle and "StringClassAndInstanceName".

share|improve this answer
add comment

Check this answer.

Basically you have to save it inside a Bundle.

share|improve this answer
Ok thanks, maybe I wasn't clear enough. What I wanted to know is how to save a custom object. I found that I can make it parcelable. –  jul Jul 4 '10 at 10:57
add comment

Your Answer


