How parse json array with multiple objects by gson?

Question

How can I parse json using gson? I have a json array with multiple object types, and I don't know, what kind of object I need to create to save this structure. I cannot change the json data format (I don't control the server). Can I use gson or other library parse this json array, how should I do?

This is the json code block:

[
  {
    "type": 1,
    "object": {
      "title1": "title1",
      "title2": "title2"
    }
  },
  {
    "type": 2,
    "object": [
      "string",
      "string",
      "string"
    ]
  },
  {
    "type": 3,
    "object": [
      {
        "url": "url",
        "text": "text",
        "width": 600,
        "height": 600
      },
      {
        "url": "url",
        "text": "text",
        "width": 600,
        "height": 600
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "type": 4,
    "object": {
      "id": 337203,
      "type": 1,
      "city": "1"
    }
  }
]

Hi! Have you read and tried my answer yet? – BNK Sep 09 '15 at 10:19 — BNK, Sep 09 '15 at 10:19

Dean Wild · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-08T08:45:14.877

This json structure is inherently gson-unfriendly. i.e You cannot model this cleanly in java because the "object" key refers to a dynamic type. The best you can do with this structure is model it like so:

    public class Models extends ArrayList<Models.Container> {

    public class Container {
        public int type;
        public Object object;
    }

    public class Type1Object {
        public String title1;
        public String title2;
    }

    public class Type3Object {
        public String url;
        public String text;
        public int width;
        public int height;
    }

    public class Type4Object {
        public int id;
        public int type;
        public int city;
    }

}

Then do some awkward switch on type and the object field:

String json = "{ ... json string ... }";
Gson gson = new Gson();
Models model = gson.fromJson(json, Models.class);


for (Models.Container container : model) {

    String innerJson = gson.toJson(container.object);

    switch(container.type){
        case 1:
            Models.Type1Object type1Object = gson.fromJson(innerJson, Models.Type1Object.class);
            // do something with type 1 object...                                
            break;
        case 2:
            String[] type2Object = gson.fromJson(innerJson, String[].class);
            // do something with type 2 object...
            break;
        case 3:
            Models.Type3Object[] type3Object = gson.fromJson(innerJson, Models.Type3Object[].class);
            // do something with type 3 object...
            break;
        case 4:
            Models.Type4Object type4Object = gson.fromJson(innerJson, Models.Type4Object.class);
            // do something with type 4 object...
            break;

    }
}

Ultimately the best solution is to get the json structure changed to something more compatible with java.

E.g:

[
  {
    "type": 1,
    "type1Object": {
      "title1": "title1",
      "title2": "title2"
    }
  },
  {
    "type": 2,
    "type2Object": [
      "string",
      "string",
      "string"
    ]
  },
  {
    "type": 3,
    "type3Object": [
      {
        "url": "url",
        "text": "text",
        "width": 600,
        "height": 600
      },
      {
        "url": "url",
        "text": "text",
        "width": 600,
        "height": 600
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "type": 4,
    "type4Object": {
      "id": 337203,
      "type": 1,
      "city": "1"
    }
  }
]

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 04 '16 at 19:31

This may be a bit late for the original poster, but hopefully it will help someone else.

I am using Gson in Android. I have seen everyone use custom classes and long way round solutions. Mine is basic.

I have an ArrayList of many different Object types (Models for my database) - Profile is one of them. I get the item using mContactList.get(i) which returns:

{"profile": 
    {"name":"Josh",
     "position":"Programmer",
     "profile_id":1,
     "profile_image_id":10,
     "user_id":1472934469
    },
 "user":
    {"email":"example@you.co.za",
     "phone_numbers":[],
     "user_id":1,
     "user_type_id":1
    },
 "follower":
    {"follower_id":3,
     "following_date":1.4729345E9,
     "referred_by_id":2,
     "user_from_id":1,
     "user_to_id":2
    },
 "media":
    {"link":"uploads/profiles/profile-photos/originals/1-G9FSkRCzikP4QFY.png",
     "media_description":"",
     "media_id":10,
     "media_name":"",
     "media_slug":"",
     "medium_link":"uploads/profiles/profile-photos/thumbs-medium/1-G9FSkRCzikP4QFY.png",
     "thumbnail_link":"uploads/profiles/profile-photos/thumbs-small/1-G9FSkRCzikP4QFY.png",
     "uploader_id":1
    }
}

Now I create the Gson object:

Gson gson = new Gson();
// this creates the JSON string you see above with all of the objects
String str_obj = new Gson().toJson(mContactList.get(i));

Now instead of creating a custom class - just pass it through as a JsonObject using the following code:

JsonObject obj = gson.fromJson(str_obj, JsonObject.class);

And now, you can call the object like so:

JsonObject profile = obj.getAsJsonObject("profile");

How can I get the name property of profile? @Haring10 – K.tas Dec 02 '20 at 14:08 — K.tas, Dec 02 '20 at 14:08

Kaveesh Kanwal · Answer 3 · 2015-09-08T07:41:48.403

You can set the methods in your model class very easily. Just make a StringRequest. Below is a snippet:

List<YourModelClass> inpList;
StringRequest greq = new StringRequest(Request.Method.POST, yourURL, new Response.Listener<String>() {
            @Override
            public void onResponse(String response) {
                try {
                        Log.d("response array===>  ", response.toString());

                        Type type = new TypeToken<List<YourModelClass>>(){}.getType();
                        inpList = new Gson().fromJson(response, type);

                } catch (Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }, new Response.ErrorListener() {
            @Override
            public void onErrorResponse(VolleyError error) {
                error.printStackTrace();

            }
        }){
            @Override
            protected Map<String, String> getParams() throws AuthFailureError {
                Map<String, String> params = new HashMap<String, String>();
                //return params back to server, if any
            }
        };

        yourVolley.getRequestQueue().add(greq);

I have used this to generate your model class from you json. Your model class will look something like this:

 package com.example;

import javax.annotation.Generated;
import com.google.gson.annotations.Expose;

@Generated("org.jsonschema2pojo")
public class YourModelClass {

@Expose
private Integer type;
@Expose
private Object object;

/**
* 
* @return
* The type
*/
public Integer getType() {
return type;
}

/**
* 
* @param type
* The type
*/
public void setType(Integer type) {
this.type = type;
}

/**
* 
* @return
* The object
*/
public Object getObject() {
return object;
}

/**
* 
* @param object
* The object
*/
public void setObject(Object object) {
this.object = object;
}

}
-----------------------------------com.example.Object.java-----------------------------------

package com.example;

import javax.annotation.Generated;
import com.google.gson.annotations.Expose;

@Generated("org.jsonschema2pojo")
public class Object {

@Expose
private Integer id;
@Expose
private Integer type;
@Expose
private String city;

/**
* 
* @return
* The id
*/
public Integer getId() {
return id;
}

/**
* 
* @param id
* The id
*/
public void setId(Integer id) {
this.id = id;
}

/**
* 
* @return
* The type
*/
public Integer getType() {
return type;
}

/**
* 
* @param type
* The type
*/
public void setType(Integer type) {
this.type = type;
}

/**
* 
* @return
* The city
*/
public String getCity() {
return city;
}

/**
* 
* @param city
* The city
*/
public void setCity(String city) {
this.city = city;
}

}

You can change the model class and define object as a list of "object" class. i,e you will make another class object and define its getters and setters separately. But yes i think object value as array should have a different name than object value as an object — Kaveesh Kanwal, Sep 08 '15 at 07:48

How parse json array with multiple objects by gson?

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