JSON - Learn Java by Examples

How do I pretty print JSON string in JSON-Java?

By Wayan in JSON-Java Last modified: July 13, 2023 0 Comment

In JSON-Java we can make a pretty-printed JSON string by specifying an indentFactor to the JSONObject‘s toString() method. The indent factor is the number of spaces to add to each level of indentation.

If indentFactor > 0 and the JSONObject has only one key, the JSON string will be printed a single line, and if the JSONObject has 2 or more keys, the JSON string will be printed in multiple lines.

Let’s create a pretty-printed JSONObject text using the code below.

package org.kodejava.json;

import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;

public class PrettyPrintJSON {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        JSONObject jsonObject = new JSONObject();
        jsonObject.put("id", 1L);
        jsonObject.put("name", "Alice");
        jsonObject.put("age", 20);
        JSONArray courses = new JSONArray(
                new String[]{"Engineering", "Finance"});
        jsonObject.put("courses", courses);

        // Default print without indent factor
        System.out.println(jsonObject);

        // Pretty print with 2 indent factor
        System.out.println(jsonObject.toString(2));
    }
}

Running this code produces the following output:

{"courses":["Engineering","Finance"],"name":"Alice","id":1,"age":20}

{
  "courses": [
    "Engineering",
    "Finance"
  ],
  "name": "Alice",
  "id": 1,
  "age": 20
}

Maven Dependencies

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.json</groupId>
        <artifactId>json</artifactId>
        <version>20230618</version>
        <type>bundle</type>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

How do I create JSONArray object?

By Wayan in JSON-Java Last modified: July 13, 2023 0 Comment

A JSONArray object represent an ordered sequence of values. We use the put() method to add or replace values in the JSONArray object. The value can be of the following types: Boolean, JSONArray, JSONObject, Number, String or the JSONObject.NULL object.

Beside using the put() method we can also create and add data into JSONArray in the following ways:

Using constructor to create JSONArray from string wrapped in square bracket [], where the values are separated by comma. JSONException maybe thrown if the string is not a valid JSON string.
Creating JSONArray by passing an array as an argument to its constructor, for example an array of String[].
Using constructor to create JSONArray from a Collection, such as an ArrayList object.

The following example show you how to create JSONArray object.

package org.kodejava.json;

import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class CreateJSONArray {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Create JSONArray and put some values
        JSONArray jsonArray = new JSONArray();
        jsonArray.put("Java");
        jsonArray.put("Kotlin");
        jsonArray.put("Go");
        System.out.println(jsonArray);

        // Create JSONArray from a string wrapped in bracket and
        // the values separated by comma. String value can be 
        // quoted with single quote.
        JSONArray colorArray = new JSONArray("[1, 'Apple', 2022-02-07]");
        System.out.println(colorArray);

        // Create JSONArray from an array of String.
        JSONArray stringArray =
                new JSONArray(new String[]{"January", "February", "March"});
        System.out.println(stringArray);

        // Create JSONArray by passing a List to its constructor
        List<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
        list.add("Red");
        list.add("Green");
        list.add("Blue");
        JSONArray listArray = new JSONArray(list);
        System.out.println(listArray);

        // Using for loop to get each value from the array
        for (int i = 0; i < listArray.length(); i++) {
            System.out.println("Color: " + listArray.get(i));
        }

        // Put JSONArray into a JSONObject.
        JSONObject jsonObject = new JSONObject();
        jsonObject.put("colors", listArray);
        System.out.println(jsonObject);
    }
}

Running the code above produces the following result:

["Java","Kotlin","Go"]
[1,"Apple","2022-02-07"]
["January","February","March"]
["Red","Green","Blue"]
Color: Red
Color: Green
Color: Blue
{"colors":["Red","Green","Blue"]}

Maven Dependencies

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.json</groupId>
        <artifactId>json</artifactId>
        <version>20230618</version>
        <type>bundle</type>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

How do I read values from JSONObject?

By Wayan in JSON-Java Last modified: July 13, 2023 0 Comment

A JSONObject is an unordered collection of key-value pairs. To read values from the JSONObject we can use the get(String key) and opt(String key) methods. These generic methods return an Object, which you can cast to a certain type.

There are also typed get and opt methods to read value in specific type such as getString(), getInt(), getDouble(), optString(), optFloat(), optBigInteger(), optBoolean(), optEnum(), etc. For more detail, you can check the JSONObject API documentation.

The get methods throws JSONException when the key is not found in the JSONObject, while the opt methods does not throw exception but return null, and we can also pass a default value argument that will be returned when the key is not found.

The code below give you a simple example to read values from JSONObject.

package org.kodejava.json;

import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONException;
import org.json.JSONObject;

public class ReadJSONValue {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        JSONObject jsonObject = new JSONObject();
        jsonObject.put("id", 1L);
        jsonObject.put("name", "Alice");
        jsonObject.put("age", 20);
        jsonObject.put("courses",
                new JSONArray(new String[] {"Engineering", "Finance"}));
        System.out.println(jsonObject);

        // Using get() and opt() methods we need to cast
        // the returned value to the type its store.
        long id1 = (long) jsonObject.get("id");
        String name1 = (String) jsonObject.get("name");
        int age1 = (int) jsonObject.get("age");
        JSONArray courses1 = (JSONArray) jsonObject.get("courses");

        // This will throw exception because JSONObject
        // does not have the address key in it.
        String address1;
        try {
            address1 = (String) jsonObject.get("address");
        } catch (JSONException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        // Using opt() method to read address, does not throw
        // exception
        address1 = (String) jsonObject.opt("address");

        System.out.println("id1      = " + id1);
        System.out.println("name1    = " + name1);
        System.out.println("age1     = " + age1);
        System.out.println("address1 = " + address1);
        System.out.println("courses1 = " + courses1);
        System.out.println();

        // Using data type specific get() and opt() methods.
        // We don't have to cast the return from the getXXX()
        // and optXXX() methods.
        long id2 = jsonObject.getLong("id");
        String name2 = jsonObject.getString("name");
        int age2 = jsonObject.optInt("age");

        // Using optString() to read address and provide default
        // value when address is not found.
        String address2 = jsonObject.optString("address", "No Address");
        JSONArray courses2 = jsonObject.optJSONArray("courses");

        System.out.println("id2      = " + id2);
        System.out.println("name2    = " + name2);
        System.out.println("age2     = " + age2);
        System.out.println("address2 = " + address2);
        System.out.println("courses2 = " + courses2);
    }
}

Running this code produces the following results:

{"courses":["Engineering","Finance"],"name":"Alice","id":1,"age":20}

org.json.JSONException: JSONObject["address"] not found.
    at org.json.JSONObject.get(JSONObject.java:580)
    at org.kodejava.json.ReadJSONValue.main(ReadJSONValue.java:28)

id1      = 1
name1    = Alice
age1     = 20
address1 = null
courses1 = ["Engineering","Finance"]

id2      = 1
name2    = Alice
age2     = 20
address2 = No Address
courses2 = ["Engineering","Finance"]

Maven Dependencies

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.json</groupId>
        <artifactId>json</artifactId>
        <version>20230618</version>
        <type>bundle</type>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

How do I convert Java Object to JSON?

By Wayan in JSON-Java Last modified: July 13, 2023 0 Comment

To convert Java objects or POJOs (Plain Old Java Objects) to JSON we can use one of JSONObject constructor that takes an object as its argument. In the following example we will convert Student POJO into JSON string. Student class must provide the getter methods, JSONObject creates JSON string by calling these methods.

In this code snippet we do as follows:

Creates Student object and set its properties using the setter methods.
Create JSONObject called object and use the Student object as argument to its constructor.
JSONObject use getter methods to produces JSON string.
Call object.toString() method to get the JSON string.

package org.kodejava.json;

import org.json.JSONObject;
import org.kodejava.json.support.Student;

import java.util.Arrays;

public class PojoToJSON {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Student student = new Student();
        student.setId(1L);
        student.setName("Alice");
        student.setAge(20);
        student.setCourses(Arrays.asList("Engineering", "Finance", "Chemistry"));

        JSONObject object = new JSONObject(student);
        String json = object.toString();
        System.out.println(json);
    }
}

Running this code produces the following result:

{"courses":["Engineering","Finance","Chemistry"],"name":"Alice","id":1,"age":20}

The Student class use in the code above:

package org.kodejava.json.support;

import java.util.List;

public class Student {
    private Long id;
    private String name;
    private int age;
    private List<String> courses;

    // Getters and Setters removed for simplicity
}

Maven Dependencies

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.json</groupId>
        <artifactId>json</artifactId>
        <version>20230618</version>
        <type>bundle</type>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

How do I create JSON from a Map?

By Wayan in JSON-Java Last modified: July 10, 2023 0 Comment

In the previous example we use JSONObject to directly put key-value pairs to create JSON string, using the various put() methods. Instead of doing that, we can also create JSON from a Map object. We create a Map with some key-value pairs in it, and pass it as an argument when instantiating a JSONObject.

These are the steps for creating JSON from a Map:

Create a Map object using a HashMap class.
Put some key-value pairs into the map object.
Create a JSONObject and pass the map as argument to its constructor.
Print the JSONObject, we call object.toString() to get the JSON string.

Let’s try the following code snippet.

package org.kodejava.json;

import org.json.JSONObject;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

public class JSONFromMap {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<>();
        map.put("id", "1");
        map.put("name", "Alice");
        map.put("age", "20");

        JSONObject object = new JSONObject(map);
        System.out.println(object);
    }
}

Running this code produces the following output:

{"name":"Alice","age":"20","id":"1"}

Maven Dependencies

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.json</groupId>
        <artifactId>json</artifactId>
        <version>20230618</version>
        <type>bundle</type>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>