cant convert json string to regular string array in java

Question

iam trying to convert this json string back to an array but i can't seem to do it

    ["\"abba\"","\"repaper\"","\"minim\"","\"radar\"","\"murdrum\"","\"malayalam
     \"","\"turrut\"","\"navan\""]

can anyone help, or point me in the right direction of some tutorials. Ive tried split(",") etc but im really not too sure how to extract the words themselves.

client code:

Gson gson;
    String[] words = { "hello", "Abba", "repaper", "Minim", "radar",
            "murdrum", "malayalam", "cheese", "turrut","Navan" };  

    gson = new Gson();
    String json = gson.toJson(words);

    ClientConfig config = new DefaultClientConfig();
    Client client = Client.create(config);
    WebResource service = client
            .resource("http://localhost:8090/RestSampleApp/rest/webservice/returnarray");

    ClientResponse response = service.type(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
            .post(ClientResponse.class, json);

    String output = response.getEntity(String.class);
    //String target2 = gson.fromJson(json, String.class);
    System.out.println(output);

webservice code:

@POST
@Path("returnarray")
@Consumes(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
@Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
public String returnstuff(String list) {

    list2 = list.substring(1, list.length() - 1); //gets rid of "[]" 
    temp = new ArrayList<String>(Arrays.asList(list2.split(","))); 
    Algorithim algo = new Algorithim(temp); // instance of algorithim class takes in arrayList
    algo.getpalindromesarray();  //creates plaindrome arraylist
    newlist = algo.getnewlist();

    String details = gson.toJson(newlist);

    return details;

}

Don't try to parse it yourself. Use a json library. Your question is tagged with gson. Are you using it? — Joe F
– Joe F, Commented May 12, 2013 at 12:42
yeah im trying to use json but im not sure exactly what to do. im sending the data to a webservice as an array. them retuning it once its been edited — eoin
– eoin, Commented May 12, 2013 at 12:50
can you use java function to parse it? like substring or spilt? it will definatly work in this case....i have parsed json many times but here in your case the slash is make a problem while parsing — KOTIOS
– KOTIOS, Commented May 12, 2013 at 12:54
The situation is that you send an String[] to a web service, and it returns that JSON response? And is that exactly the response you are getting from the web service? That's not even valid JSON, too many "! — MikO
– MikO, Commented May 12, 2013 at 13:01
It's not clear why you have the quoted doubled up in the JSON. Using standard JSON parsing that would result in strings containing the value "abba" vs abba, eg. — Hot Licks
– Hot Licks, Commented May 12, 2013 at 13:03

MikO · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-12 16:54:01Z

2

EDIT: My previous answer wasn't correct, see this new one...

You are not using Gson correctly... You are serializing the objects well, but you're not doing a correct deserialization... I suggest you to take a brief look to Gson documentation, it's few lines and you'll understand it better...

First you serialize your array correctly in your client, with:

String json = gson.toJson(words);

Then you send it using Jersey API, I think that it's correct (although I'm not an expert in Jersey...)

Then your problem is that you are not deserializing the JSON correctly in your web service. You should parse the JSON string passed as a parameter, and you can do it with Gson as well, like this:

Gson gson = new Gson();
Type listOfStringsType = new TypeToken<List<String>>() {}.getType();
List<String> parsedList = gson.fromJson(list, listOfStringsType);

Now you can do whatever you want with your list of words working with a proper Java List.

Once you finish your work, you serialize again the List to return it, with:

String details = gson.toJson(parsedList);

Now you have to repeat the deserializing operation in your client to parse the response and get again a List<String>...

Note: You should never try to do things like serialize/deserialize JSON (or XML...) manually. A manual solution may work fine in a particular situation, but it can't be easily adapted to changes, thus, if your JSON responses change, even only slightly, you'll have to change a lot of code... Always use libraries for this kind of things!

edited May 12, 2013 at 16:54

answered May 12, 2013 at 13:51

MikO

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2 Comments

eoin Over a year ago

cheers Miko. ill give it a go. Just started learning webservices in jersey and its confusing me a quite bit

MikO Over a year ago

@eoin is my solution working for you? If not, please comment and I'll try to help...

duanjfeng · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-12 12:55:28Z

0

You'd better use json library, e.g. Jackson. If code yourself, you can do like below:

// 1st: remove [ and ]
s=s.substring(1, s.length()-1);
// 2nd: remove "
s=s.replaceAll("\"\"", "");
// 3rd: split
String[] parts = s.split(",");

answered May 12, 2013 at 12:55

duanjfeng

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2 Comments

MikO Over a year ago

Never ever try to parse JSON responses manually... use libraries!

eoin Over a year ago

Is it that im not sending the array as a Json object? maybe i should do that process it on the webservice side and sent back a json object??

AKS · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-16 11:08:23Z

0

You can try to use String.format to specify the format you waant to pass as part of your request. For Ex : WebResource webResource = client.resource("http://localhost:8090/RestSampleApp/rest/webservice/returnarray"); String input = String.format("{\manual format "}",parameter);

        ClientResponse response = webResource.type("application/json").post(ClientResponse.class, input);

This is how I have acheived my goal

answered Jan 16, 2015 at 11:08

AKS

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