Is a deserialised object the same instance as the original

Question

When I instantiate an object from a class, an object is saved in the java heap. When I save the object by serializing it and I later deserialize the object, do I understand corr

Answer 1

Before serializing:

A originalA = ...;
B.a == C.a == D.a == E.a == originalA

All B.a, C.a, D.a and E.a point to the same reference of A, originalA.

After serializing and deserializing:

A otherA = ...;
B.a == C.a == D.a == E.a == otherA

All B.a, C.a, D.a and E.a point to the same reference of A, otherA.

However:

originalA != otherA

though

originalA.equals(otherA) == true

Note: equals() will return true only if it is overriden to consistently check equality based on serialized fields. Otherwise, it might return false.

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EDIT:

Proof:

import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
import java.io.ObjectOutputStream;
import java.io.Serializable;

public class Sample {

    static class A implements Serializable {
        private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    }

    static class B implements Serializable {
        private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

        A a;
    }

    static class C implements Serializable {
        private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

        A a;
    }

    public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException {
        A originalA = new A();

        B b = new B();
        b.a = originalA;

        C c = new C();
        c.a = originalA;

        System.out.println("b.a == c.a is " + (b.a == c.a));

        FileOutputStream fout = new FileOutputStream("ser");
        ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(fout);
        oos.writeObject(b);
        oos.writeObject(c);
        oos.close();
        fout.close();

        FileInputStream fileIn = new FileInputStream("ser");
        ObjectInputStream in = new ObjectInputStream(fileIn);
        B bDeserialized = (B) in.readObject();
        C cDeserialized = (C) in.readObject();
        in.close();
        fileIn.close();

        System.out.println("bDeserialized.a == cDeserialized.a is " + (bDeserialized.a == cDeserialized.a));
    }
}