Parsing nested JSON object in Android

Question

I'm trying to parse a JSON object, part of which looks like this:

{
"offer":{
    "category":"Salon",
    "description":"Use this offer now to enjoy this great Salon at a 20% discount. ",
    "discount":"20",
    "expiration":"2011-04-08T02:30:00Z",
    "published":"2011-04-07T12:00:33Z",
    "rescinded_at":null,
    "title":"20% off at Jun Hair Salon",
    "valid_from":"2011-04-07T12:00:31Z",
    "valid_to":"2011-04-08T02:00:00Z",
    "id":"JUN_HAIR_1302177631",
    "business":{
        "name":"Jun Hair Salon",
        "phone":"2126192989",
        "address":{
            "address_1":"12 Mott St",
            "address_2":null,
            "city":"New York",
            "cross_streets":"Chatham Sq & Worth St",
            "state":"NY",
            "zip":"10013"
        }
    },

And so on....

So far, I'm able to parse very simply, by doing this kinda thing:

JSONObject jObject = new JSONObject(content);
JSONObject offerObject = jObject.getJSONObject("offer");
String attributeId = offerObject.getString("category");
System.out.println(attributeId);

String attributeValue = offerObject.getString("description");
System.out.println(attributeValue);

String titleValue = offerObject.getString("title");
System.out.println(titleValue);`

But when I try it for 'name:' it won't work.

I've tried:

JSONObject businessObject = jObject.getJSONObject("business");
String nameValue = businesObject.getString("name");
System.out.println(nameValue);

When I try that, I get "JSONObject [business] not found."

And when I try:

String nameValue = offerObject.getString("name");
System.out.println(nameValue);`

I get, as expected, "JSONObject [name] not found".

What am I doing wrong here? I'm missing something basic....

Answer 1

Ok, I'm an idiot. This works.

JSONObject businessObject = offerObject.getJSONObject("business");
String nameValue = businessObject.getString("name");
System.out.println(nameValue);

If I would only think for two seconds before posting... Jees!

Answer 2

Here a single-line solution

String myString = myJsonObject.getJSONObject("offer").getJSONObject("business").getString("name");

Answer 3

Note that serializing/deserializing JSON to/from Java objects doesn't have to be done "manually". Libraries like GSON and Jackson make it very easy.

import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import com.google.gson.FieldNamingPolicy;
import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.GsonBuilder;

public class Foo
{
  static String jsonInput = 
    "{" + 
      "\"offer\":{" + 
        "\"category\":\"Salon\"," + 
        "\"description\":\"Use this offer now to enjoy this great Salon at a 20% discount. \"," + 
        "\"discount\":\"20\"," + 
        "\"expiration\":\"2011-04-08T02:30:00Z\"," + 
        "\"published\":\"2011-04-07T12:00:33Z\"," + 
        "\"rescinded_at\":null," + 
        "\"title\":\"20% off at Jun Hair Salon\"," + 
        "\"valid_from\":\"2011-04-07T12:00:31Z\"," + 
        "\"valid_to\":\"2011-04-08T02:00:00Z\"," + 
        "\"id\":\"JUN_HAIR_1302177631\"," + 
        "\"business\":{" + 
          "\"name\":\"Jun Hair Salon\"," + 
          "\"phone\":\"2126192989\"," + 
          "\"address\":{" + 
            "\"address_1\":\"12 Mott St\"," + 
            "\"address_2\":null," + 
            "\"city\":\"New York\"," + 
            "\"cross_streets\":\"Chatham Sq & Worth St\"," + 
            "\"state\":\"NY\"," + 
            "\"zip\":\"10013\"" + 
          "}" + 
        "}" + 
      "}" + 
    "}";

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
  {
    GsonBuilder gsonBuilder = new GsonBuilder();
    // gsonBuilder.setFieldNamingPolicy(FieldNamingPolicy.LOWER_CASE_WITH_UNDERSCORES);
    gsonBuilder.setDateFormat(DateFormat.LONG);
    Gson gson = gsonBuilder.create();
    OfferContainer offerContainer = gson.fromJson(jsonInput, OfferContainer.class);
    System.out.println(offerContainer);
  }
}

class OfferContainer
{
  private Offer offer;

@Override
  public String toString()
  {
    return offer.toString();
  }
}

class Offer
{
  private Category category;
  private String description;
  private String discount;
  private Date expiration;
  private Date published;
  private String rescinded_at;
  private String title;
  private Date valid_from;
  private Date valid_to;
  private String id;
  private Business business;

@Override
  public String toString()
  {
    return String.format(
            "[Offer: category=%1$s, description=%2$s, discount=%3$s, expiration=%4$s, published=%5$s, rescinded_at=%6$s, title=%7$s, valid_from=%8$s, valid_to=%9$s, id=%10$s, business=%11$s]",
            category, description, discount, expiration, published, rescinded_at, title, valid_from, valid_to, id,
            business);
  }
}

enum Category
{
  Salon
}

class Business
{
  private String name;
  private String phone;
  private Address address;

@Override
  public String toString()
  {
    return String.format(
        "[Business: name=%1$s, phone=%2$s, address=%3$s]",
        name, phone, address);
  }
}

class Address
{
  private String address_1;
  private String address_2;
  private String city;
  private String cross_streets;
  private String state;
  private String zip;

@Override
  public String toString()
  {
    return String.format(
        "[Address: address_1=%1$s, address_2=%2$s, city=%3$s, cross_streets=%4$s, state=%5$s, zip=%6$s]",
        address_1, address_2, city, cross_streets, state, zip);
  }
}

Note that a FieldNamingPolicy can be used to easily map attribute names from the JSON to the Java code. The LOWER_CASE_WITH_UNDERSCORES policy unfortunately does not work with JSON attribute names like "address_1".

If the performance of JSON handling is a concern, then take a look at Jackson Vs. Gson and http://www.cowtowncoder.com/blog/archives/2011/01/entry_437.html