How to save List<Object> to SharedPreferences in Flutter?

I have a list of favorite music, which I retrieve from music when the app is opened for the first time, the app gets a favorite music list from favorite. I want to save this list to shared

preferences.List<Music> favoriteMusic = new List<Music>();

where music class is:

class Music {
  final int id;
  final String name, size, rating, duration, img;
  bool favorite;

  Music({
    this.id,
    this.rating,
    this.size,
    this.duration,
    this.name,
    this.img,
    this.favorite,
  });

  factory Music.fromJson(Map<String, dynamic> jsonData){
    return Music(
      id: jsonData['id'],
      rating: jsonData['rating'],
      size: jsonData['size'],
      duration: jsonData['duration'],
      name: jsonData['name'],
      img: jsonData['img'],
      favorite: false,
    );
  }
}

How can I save favorite music list?

You should do these steps

to save the object:

1. convert your object to map with toMap() method
2. encode your map to string with encode(...) method
3. save the string to shared preferences

for restoring your object:

1. decode shared preference string to a map with decode(...) method
2. use fromJson() method to get your object

UPDATE FULL SAMPLE

import 'dart:convert';

void main() async {
  final SharedPreferences prefs = await SharedPreferences.getInstance();
  
  // Encode and store data in SharedPreferences
  final String encodedData = Music.encode([
    Music(id: 1, ...),
    Music(id: 2, ...),
    Music(id: 3, ...),
  ]);

  await prefs.setString('musics_key', encodedData);

  // Fetch and decode data
  final String musicsString = await prefs.getString('musics_key');

  final List<Music> musics = Music.decode(musicsString);
}

class Music {
  final int id;
  final String name, size, rating, duration, img;
  bool favorite;

  Music({
    this.id,
    this.rating,
    this.size,
    this.duration,
    this.name,
    this.img,
    this.favorite,
  });

  factory Music.fromJson(Map<String, dynamic> jsonData) {
    return Music(
      id: jsonData['id'],
      rating: jsonData['rating'],
      size: jsonData['size'],
      duration: jsonData['duration'],
      name: jsonData['name'],
      img: jsonData['img'],
      favorite: false,
    );
  }

  static Map<String, dynamic> toMap(Music music) => {
        'id': music.id,
        'rating': music.rating,
        'size': music.size,
        'duration': music.duration,
        'name': music.name,
        'img': music.img,
        'favorite': music.favorite,
      };

  static String encode(List<Music> musics) => json.encode(
        musics
            .map<Map<String, dynamic>>((music) => Music.toMap(music))
            .toList(),
      );

  static List<Music> decode(String musics) =>
      (json.decode(musics) as List<dynamic>)
          .map<Music>((item) => Music.fromJson(item))
          .toList();
}

Convert it to a string, you can store it

import 'dart:convert';
...
var s = json.encode(myList);
// or var s = jsonEncode(myList);

json.decode() //convert a string to List when you load it

Flutter's shared_preferences plugin has a method: setStringList(String key, List<String> value), so you can just write serializer for your objects.

For noob folks like me who want to understand a bit more about the magic our dear friend Hamed did in his answer, or want to adapt his solution to more complex classes with lists/other classes, check out these two links: https://bezkoder.com/dart-flutter-parse-json-string-array-to-object-list/

https://bezkoder.com/dart-flutter-convert-object-to-json-string/

jsonEncode() and jsonDecode() are the same as json.encode() and json.decode()

simply use stringlist in shared preferences

basic syntax:

    // read
    final myStringList = prefs.getStringList('my_string_list_key') ?? [];
    // write
    prefs.setStringList('my_string_list_key', ['a', 'b', 'c']);

Firstly convert the object to a map. Then convert the map to a JSON string using jsonEncode and at the end save the JSON string to shared preferences

Sample example:

        // import 'dart:convert';
    Person person = Person('Mary', 30);
    Map<String, dynamic> map = {
      'name': person.name,
      'age': person.age
    };
    String rawJson = jsonEncode(map);
    prefs.setString('my_string_key', rawJson);

 

retrieve data

final rawJson = prefs.getString('my_string_key') ?? '';
Map<String, dynamic> map = jsonDecode(rawJson);
final person = Person(map['name'], map['age']);