How to use @Serializable as a interface?

user_1762099 0
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I would like to write an function, that would work on any object which is serializable. Something like this:

inline fun <reified @Serializable T> T.serialiseToJson(): String {
    return format.encodeToString(this)
}

This doesnt work because you cant use @Serializable to annotate type parameter.

Is there a way to do this?

kotlinx.serialization kotlin
1 Answers

A common way to handle this is to take a serializer as a parameter.

fun <T> T.serializeToJson(serializer: KSerializer<T>): String {
    return format.encodeToString(serializer, this)
}

It's a bit more verbose, but it's also more flexible because it allows the user to pass a custom serializer instead of always picking the generated one. And you have the same type-safety because you can only use it with types for which a KSerializer exists.

user_25653400
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