How to check whether the given object is object or Array in JSON string

Question

I am getting JSON string from website. I have data which looks like this (JSON Array)

 myconf= {URL:[blah,blah]}

but some times this data can be (JSON object)

 myconf= {URL:{try}}

also it can be empty

 myconf= {}    

I want to do different operations when its object and different when its an array. Till now in my code I was trying to consider only arrays so I am getting following exception. But I am not able to check for objects or arrays.

I am getting following exception

    org.json.JSONException: JSONObject["URL"] is not a JSONArray.

Can anyone suggest how it can be fixed. Here I know that objects and arrays are the instances of the JSON object. But I couldn't find a function with which I can check whether the given instance is a array or object.

I have tried using this if condition but with no success

if ( myconf.length() == 0 ||myconf.has("URL")!=true||myconf.getJSONArray("URL").length()==0)

Answer 1

JSON objects and arrays are instances of JSONObject and JSONArray, respectively. Add to that the fact that JSONObject has a get method that will return you an object you can check the type of yourself without worrying about ClassCastExceptions, and there ya go.

if (!json.isNull("URL"))
{
    // Note, not `getJSONArray` or any of that.
    // This will give us whatever's at "URL", regardless of its type.
    Object item = json.get("URL"); 

    // `instanceof` tells us whether the object can be cast to a specific type
    if (item instanceof JSONArray)
    {
        // it's an array
        JSONArray urlArray = (JSONArray) item;
        // do all kinds of JSONArray'ish things with urlArray
    }
    else
    {
        // if you know it's either an array or an object, then it's an object
        JSONObject urlObject = (JSONObject) item;
        // do objecty stuff with urlObject
    }
}
else
{
    // URL is null/undefined
    // oh noes
}

Answer 2

Quite a few ways.

This one is less recommended if you are concerned with system resource issues / misuse of using Java exceptions to determine an array or object.

try{
 // codes to get JSON object
} catch (JSONException e){
 // codes to get JSON array
}

Or

This is recommended.

if (json instanceof Array) {
    // get JSON array
} else {
    // get JSON object
}