Android room persistent library - TypeConverter error of error: Cannot figure out how to save field to database"

This is a common problem I've seen since Room was announced. Room does not support the ability to store Lists directly, nor the ability to convert to/from Lists. It supports converting and storing POJO's.

In this case the solution is simple. Instead of storing a List<CountryLang> you want to store CountryLangs (note the 's')

I've done a quick example of a solution here :

public class CountryLangs {
    private List<String> countryLangs;

    public CountryLangs(List<String> countryLangs) {
        this.countryLangs = countryLangs;
    }

    public List<String> getCountryLangs() {
        return countryLangs;
    }

    public void setCountryLangs(List<String> countryLangs) {
        this.countryLangs = countryLangs;
    }
}

This POJO is an inversion of your previous object. It is an object that stores a list of languages. Instead of a list of objects that store your language.

public class LanguageConverter {
    @TypeConverter
    public CountryLangs storedStringToLanguages(String value) {
        List<String> langs = Arrays.asList(value.split("\\s*,\\s*"));
        return new CountryLangs(langs);
    }

    @TypeConverter
    public String languagesToStoredString(CountryLangs cl) {
        String value = "";

        for (String lang :cl.getCountryLangs())
            value += lang + ",";

        return value;
    }
}

This converter takes a list of strings and converts them into a comma seperated string to be stored in a single column. When it fetches the string from the SQLite db to convert back, it splits the list on commas, and populates the CountryLangs.

Insure to update your RoomDatabase version after making these changes.You have the rest of the configuration correct. Happy hunting with the rest of your Room persistence work.

Had same error: "Cannot figure out how to save this field into database" while trying to add a Date field. Had to add a converter class for it and add @TypeConverters annotation to field.

Example:

WordEntity.java

import android.arch.persistence.room.TypeConverters;

    @Entity
    public class WordEntity {

        @PrimaryKey(autoGenerate = true)
        public int id;
        private String name;
        @TypeConverters(DateConverter.class)
        private Date createDate;

DateConverter.java:

import android.arch.persistence.room.TypeConverter;

import java.util.Date;

public class DateConverter {

    @TypeConverter
    public static Date toDate(Long timestamp) {
        return timestamp == null ? null : new Date(timestamp);
    }

    @TypeConverter
    public static Long toTimestamp(Date date) {
        return date == null ? null : date.getTime();
    }
}

I used the type converters described here (Article at Medium.com) and it worked:

@TypeConverter
    public static List<MyObject> storedStringToMyObjects(String data) {
        Gson gson = new Gson();
        if (data == null) {
            return Collections.emptyList();
        }
        Type listType = new TypeToken<List<MyObject>>() {}.getType();
        return gson.fromJson(data, listType);
    }

    @TypeConverter
    public static String myObjectsToStoredString(List<MyObject> myObjects) {
        Gson gson = new Gson();
        return gson.toJson(myObjects);
    }