Convert JSON to Map

Question

What is the best way to convert a JSON code as this:

{ 
    "data" : 
    { 
        "field1" : "value1", 
        "field2" : "value2"
    }
}

in a Java Map in which one the keys are (field1, field2) and the values for those fields are (value1, value2).

Any ideas? Should I use Json-lib for that? Or better if I write my own parser?

Answer 1

My post could be helpful for others, so imagine you have a map with a specific object in values, something like that:

{  
   "shopping_list":{  
      "996386":{  
         "id":996386,
         "label":"My 1st shopping list",
         "current":true,
         "nb_reference":6
      },
      "888540":{  
         "id":888540,
         "label":"My 2nd shopping list",
         "current":false,
         "nb_reference":2
      }
   }
}

To parse this JSON file with GSON library, it's easy : if your project is mavenized

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>
    <artifactId>gson</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.1</version>
</dependency>

Then use this snippet :

import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.JsonElement;
import com.google.gson.JsonObject;
import com.google.gson.JsonParser;

//Read the JSON file
JsonElement root = new JsonParser().parse(new FileReader("/path/to/the/json/file/in/your/file/system.json"));

//Get the content of the first map
JsonObject object = root.getAsJsonObject().get("shopping_list").getAsJsonObject();

//Iterate over this map
Gson gson = new Gson();
for (Entry<String, JsonElement> entry : object.entrySet()) {
    ShoppingList shoppingList = gson.fromJson(entry.getValue(), ShoppingList.class);
    System.out.println(shoppingList.getLabel());
}

The corresponding POJO should be something like that :

public class ShoppingList {

    int id;

    String label;

    boolean current;

    int nb_reference;

    //Setters & Getters !!!!!
}

Hope it helps !

Answer 2

The JsonTools library is very complete. It can be found at Github.

Answer 3

I like google gson library.
When you don't know structure of json. You can use

JsonElement root = new JsonParser().parse(jsonString);

and then you can work with json. e.g. how to get "value1" from your gson:

String value1 = root.getAsJsonObject().get("data").getAsJsonObject().get("field1").getAsString();

Answer 4

java.lang.reflect.Type mapType = new TypeToken<Map<String, Object>>(){}.getType();
Gson gson = new Gson();
Map<String, Object> categoryicons = gson.fromJson(json, mapType );

Answer 5

I do it this way. It's Simple.

import java.util.Map;
import org.json.JSONObject;
import com.google.gson.Gson;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        JSONObject jsonObj = new JSONObject("{ \"f1\":\"v1\"}");
        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
        Map<String, String> map = new Gson().fromJson(jsonObj.toString(),Map.class);
        System.out.println(map);
    }
}

Answer 6

Underscore-java library can convert json string to hash map. I am the maintainer of the project.

Code example:

import com.github.underscore.lodash.U;
import java.util.*;

public class Main {

    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String json = "{"
            + "    \"data\" :"
            + "    {"
            + "        \"field1\" : \"value1\","
            + "        \"field2\" : \"value2\""
            + "    }"
            + "}";

       Map<String, Object> data = (Map) U.get((Map<String, Object>) U.fromJson(json), "data");
       System.out.println(data);

       // {field1=value1, field2=value2}
    }
}