Android Room Database: How to handle Arraylist in an Entity?

Option #1: Have MyListItems be an @Entity, as MainActivityData is. MyListItems would set up a @ForeignKey back to MainActivityData. In this case, though, MainActivityData cannot have private ArrayList<MyListItems> myListItems, as in Room, entities do not refer to other entities. A view model or similar POJO construct could have a MainActivityData and its associated ArrayList<MyListItems>, though.

Option #2: Set up a pair of @TypeConverter methods to convert ArrayList<MyListItems> to and from some basic type (e.g., a String, such as by using JSON as a storage format). Now, MainActivityData can have its ArrayList<MyListItems> directly. However, there will be no separate table for MyListItems, and so you cannot query on MyListItems very well.

Kotlin version for type converter:

 class Converters {

    @TypeConverter
    fun listToJson(value: List<JobWorkHistory>?) = Gson().toJson(value)

    @TypeConverter
    fun jsonToList(value: String) = Gson().fromJson(value, Array<JobWorkHistory>::class.java).toList()
}

I Used JobWorkHistory object for my purpose, use the object of your own

@Database(entities = arrayOf(JobDetailFile::class, JobResponse::class), version = 1)
@TypeConverters(Converters::class)
abstract class MyRoomDataBase : RoomDatabase() {
     abstract fun attachmentsDao(): AttachmentsDao
}

Native Kotlin version using Kotlin's serialization component – kotlinx.serialization.

1. Add the Kotlin serialization Gradle plugin and dependency to your build.gradle:

apply plugin: 'kotlinx-serialization'

dependencies {
   ...
   implementation "org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-serialization-json:1.0.1"
}

2. Add the Type converters to your Converter class;

class Converters {
   @TypeConverter
   fun fromList(value : List<String>) = Json.encodeToString(value)

   @TypeConverter
   fun toList(value: String) = Json.decodeFromString<List<String>>(value)
}

3. Add your Converter class to your database class:

@TypeConverters(Converters::class)
abstract class YourDatabase: RoomDatabase() {...}

And you're done!

Extra resources:

• Type Converters
• Kotlin Serialization

Type Converter are made specifically for that. In your case, you can use code snippet given below to store data in DB.

public class Converters {
    @TypeConverter
    public static ArrayList<String> fromString(String value) {
        Type listType = new TypeToken<ArrayList<String>>() {}.getType();
        return new Gson().fromJson(value, listType);
    }

    @TypeConverter
    public static String fromArrayList(ArrayList<String> list) {
        Gson gson = new Gson();
        String json = gson.toJson(list);
        return json;
    }
}

And mention this class in your Room DB like this

@Database (entities = {MainActivityData.class},version = 1)
@TypeConverters({Converters.class})

More info here