How to parse JSON in Kotlin?

Question

There is no question that the future of parsing in Kotlin will be with kotlinx.serialization. It is part of Kotlin libraries. Version kotlinx.serialization 1.0 is finally released

https://github.com/Kotlin/kotlinx.serialization

import kotlinx.serialization.*
import kotlinx.serialization.json.JSON

@Serializable
data class MyModel(val a: Int, @Optional val b: String = "42")

fun main(args: Array<String>) {

    // serializing objects
    val jsonData = JSON.stringify(MyModel.serializer(), MyModel(42))
    println(jsonData) // {"a": 42, "b": "42"}
    
    // serializing lists
    val jsonList = JSON.stringify(MyModel.serializer().list, listOf(MyModel(42)))
    println(jsonList) // [{"a": 42, "b": "42"}]

    // parsing data back
    val obj = JSON.parse(MyModel.serializer(), """{"a":42}""")
    println(obj) // MyModel(a=42, b="42")
}

You can use this library https://github.com/cbeust/klaxon

Klaxon is a lightweight library to parse JSON in Kotlin.

Without external library (on Android)

To parse this:

val jsonString = """
    {
       "type":"Foo",
       "data":[
          {
             "id":1,
             "title":"Hello"
          },
          {
             "id":2,
             "title":"World"
          }
       ]
    }        
"""

Use these classes:

import org.json.JSONObject

class Response(json: String) : JSONObject(json) {
    val type: String? = this.optString("type")
    val data = this.optJSONArray("data")
            ?.let { 0.until(it.length()).map { i -> it.optJSONObject(i) } } // returns an array of JSONObject
            ?.map { Foo(it.toString()) } // transforms each JSONObject of the array into Foo
}

class Foo(json: String) : JSONObject(json) {
    val id = this.optInt("id")
    val title: String? = this.optString("title")
}

Usage:

val foos = Response(jsonString)

You can use Gson .

Example

Step 1

Add compile

compile 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.2'

Step 2

Convert json to Kotlin Bean(use JsonToKotlinClass)

Like this

Json data

{
"timestamp": "2018-02-13 15:45:45",
"code": "OK",
"message": "user info",
"path": "/user/info",
"data": {
    "userId": 8,
    "avatar": "/uploads/image/20180115/1516009286213053126.jpeg",
    "nickname": "",
    "gender": 0,
    "birthday": 1525968000000,
    "age": 0,
    "province": "",
    "city": "",
    "district": "",
    "workStatus": "Student",
    "userType": 0
},
"errorDetail": null
}

Kotlin Bean

class MineUserEntity {

    data class MineUserInfo(
        val timestamp: String,
        val code: String,
        val message: String,
        val path: String,
        val data: Data,
        val errorDetail: Any
    )

    data class Data(
        val userId: Int,
        val avatar: String,
        val nickname: String,
        val gender: Int,
        val birthday: Long,
        val age: Int,
        val province: String,
        val city: String,
        val district: String,
        val workStatus: String,
        val userType: Int
    )
}

Step 3

Use Gson

var gson = Gson()
var mMineUserEntity = gson?.fromJson(response, MineUserEntity.MineUserInfo::class.java)

Not sure if this is what you need but this is how I did it.

Using import org.json.JSONObject :

    val jsonObj = JSONObject(json.substring(json.indexOf("{"), json.lastIndexOf("}") + 1))
    val foodJson = jsonObj.getJSONArray("Foods")
    for (i in 0..foodJson!!.length() - 1) {
        val categories = FoodCategoryObject()
        val name = foodJson.getJSONObject(i).getString("FoodName")
        categories.name = name
    }

Here's a sample of the json :

{"Foods": [{"FoodName": "Apples","Weight": "110" } ]}

I personally use the Jackson module for Kotlin that you can find here: jackson-module-kotlin.

implementation "com.fasterxml.jackson.module:jackson-module-kotlin:$version"

As an example, here is the code to parse the JSON of the Path of Exile skilltree which is quite heavy (84k lines when formatted) :

Kotlin code:

package util

import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationFeature
import com.fasterxml.jackson.module.kotlin.*
import java.io.File

data class SkillTreeData( val characterData: Map<String, CharacterData>, val groups: Map<String, Group>, val root: Root,
                          val nodes: List<Node>, val extraImages: Map<String, ExtraImage>, val min_x: Double,
                          val min_y: Double, val max_x: Double, val max_y: Double,
                          val assets: Map<String, Map<String, String>>, val constants: Constants, val imageRoot: String,
                          val skillSprites: SkillSprites, val imageZoomLevels: List<Int> )


data class CharacterData( val base_str: Int, val base_dex: Int, val base_int: Int )

data class Group( val x: Double, val y: Double, val oo: Map<String, Boolean>?, val n: List<Int> )

data class Root( val g: Int, val o: Int, val oidx: Int, val sa: Int, val da: Int, val ia: Int, val out: List<Int> )

data class Node( val id: Int, val icon: String, val ks: Boolean, val not: Boolean, val dn: String, val m: Boolean,
                 val isJewelSocket: Boolean, val isMultipleChoice: Boolean, val isMultipleChoiceOption: Boolean,
                 val passivePointsGranted: Int, val flavourText: List<String>?, val ascendancyName: String?,
                 val isAscendancyStart: Boolean?, val reminderText: List<String>?, val spc: List<Int>, val sd: List<String>,
                 val g: Int, val o: Int, val oidx: Int, val sa: Int, val da: Int, val ia: Int, val out: List<Int> )

data class ExtraImage( val x: Double, val y: Double, val image: String )

data class Constants( val classes: Map<String, Int>, val characterAttributes: Map<String, Int>,
                      val PSSCentreInnerRadius: Int )

data class SubSpriteCoords( val x: Int, val y: Int, val w: Int, val h: Int )

data class Sprite( val filename: String, val coords: Map<String, SubSpriteCoords> )

data class SkillSprites( val normalActive: List<Sprite>, val notableActive: List<Sprite>,
                         val keystoneActive: List<Sprite>, val normalInactive: List<Sprite>,
                         val notableInactive: List<Sprite>, val keystoneInactive: List<Sprite>,
                         val mastery: List<Sprite> )

private fun convert( jsonFile: File ) {
    val mapper = jacksonObjectMapper()
    mapper.configure( DeserializationFeature.ACCEPT_EMPTY_ARRAY_AS_NULL_OBJECT, true )

    val skillTreeData = mapper.readValue<SkillTreeData>( jsonFile )
    println("Conversion finished !")
}

fun main( args : Array<String> ) {
    val jsonFile: File = File( """rawSkilltree.json""" )
    convert( jsonFile )

JSON (not-formatted): http://filebin.ca/3B3reNQf3KXJ/rawSkilltree.json

Given your description, I believe it matches your needs.

To convert JSON to Kotlin use http://www.json2kotlin.com/

Also you can use Android Studio plugin. File > Settings, select Plugins in left tree, press "Browse repositories...", search "JsonToKotlinClass", select it and click green button "Install".

After AS restart you can use it. You can create a class with File > New > JSON To Kotlin Class (JsonToKotlinClass). Another way is to press Alt + K.

Then you will see a dialog to paste JSON.

In 2018 I had to add package com.my.package_name at the beginning of a class.