title: Serialization and pointers Java
body: <p>When you serialized an object does it follow pointers. Let say I have a tree data structure and the root and all other object in the tree implement serializable.  My class looks like this</p>
  
  <p>class Tree
  ...
  private Node root:
  ...</p>
  
  <p>Will it be able to follow the root being the only explicitly declared instance variable? Will it save the whole tree even though the pointed to elements aren't members? Also when it is restored will it recreate the data structure entirely?</p>