Gson - convert from Json to a typed ArrayList<T>

Question

You may use TypeToken to load the json string into a custom object.

logs = gson.fromJson(br, new TypeToken<List<JsonLog>>(){}.getType());

Documentation:

Represents a generic type T.

Java doesn't yet provide a way to represent generic types, so this class does. Forces clients to create a subclass of this class which enables retrieval the type information even at runtime.

For example, to create a type literal for List<String>, you can create an empty anonymous inner class:

TypeToken<List<String>> list = new TypeToken<List<String>>() {};

This syntax cannot be used to create type literals that have wildcard parameters, such as Class<?> or List<? extends CharSequence>.

Kotlin:

If you need to do it in Kotlin you can do it like this:

val myType = object : TypeToken<List<JsonLong>>() {}.type
val logs = gson.fromJson<List<JsonLong>>(br, myType)

Or you can see this answer for various alternatives.

Your JSON sample is:

{
    "status": "ok",
    "comment": "",
    "result": {
    "id": 276,
    "firstName": "mohamed",
    "lastName": "hussien",
    "players": [
            "player 1",
            "player 2",
            "player 3",
            "player 4",
            "player 5"
    ]
}

so if you want to save arraylist of modules in your SharedPrefrences so :

1- will convert your returned arraylist for json format using this method

public static String toJson(Object jsonObject) {
    return new Gson().toJson(jsonObject);
}

2- Save it in shared prefreneces

PreferencesUtils.getInstance(context).setString("players", toJson((.....ArrayList you want to convert.....)));

3- to retrieve it at any time get JsonString from Shared preferences like that

String playersString= PreferencesUtils.getInstance(this).getString("players");

4- convert it again to array list

public static Object fromJson(String jsonString, Type type) {
    return new Gson().fromJson(jsonString, type);
}

ArrayList<String> playersList= (ArrayList<String>) fromJson(playersString,
                    new TypeToken<ArrayList<String>>() {
                    }.getType());

this solution also doable if you want to parse ArrayList of Objects Hope it's help you by using Gson Library .

Kotlin

data class Player(val name : String, val surname: String)

val json = [
  {
    "name": "name 1",
    "surname": "surname 1"
  },
  {
    "name": "name 2",
    "surname": "surname 2"
  },
  {
    "name": "name 3",
    "surname": "surname 3"
  }
]

val typeToken = object : TypeToken<List<Player>>() {}.type
val playerArray = Gson().fromJson<List<Player>>(json, typeToken)

OR

val playerArray = Gson().fromJson(json, Array<Player>::class.java)

Why nobody wrote this simple way of converting JSON string in List ?

List<Object> list = Arrays.asList(new GsonBuilder().create().fromJson(jsonString, Object[].class));

If you want to use Arrays, it's pretty simple.

logs = gson.fromJson(br, JsonLog[].class); // line 6

Provide the JsonLog as an array JsonLog[].class

If you want convert from Json to a typed ArrayList , it's wrong to specify the type of the object contained in the list. The correct syntax is as follows:

 Gson gson = new Gson(); 
 List<MyClass> myList = gson.fromJson(inputString, ArrayList.class);

I am not sure about gson but this is how you do it with Jon.sample hope there must be similar way using gson

{ "Players": [ "player 1", "player 2", "player 3", "player 4", "player 5" ] }

===============================================

import java.io.FileReader;
import java.util.List;

import org.json.simple.JSONObject;
import org.json.simple.parser.JSONParser;

public class JosnFileDemo {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
    {
        String jsonfile ="fileloaction/fileName.json";


                FileReader reader = null;
                JSONObject jsb = null;
                try {
                    reader = new FileReader(jsonfile);
                    JSONParser jsonParser = new JSONParser();
                     jsb = (JSONObject) jsonParser.parse(reader);
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    throw new Exception(e);
                } finally {
                    if (reader != null)
                        reader.close();
                }
                List<String> Players=(List<String>) jsb.get("Players");
                for (String player : Players) {
                    System.out.println(player);
                }           
    }
}