Jackson JsonParser
Jakob Jenkov |
The Jackson JsonParser class is a low level JSON parser. It is similar to the
Java StAX parser for XML, except the JsonParser parses JSON and
not XML.
The Jackson JsonParser works at a lower level than the Jackson ObjectMapper.
This makes the JsonParser faster than the ObjectMapper, but also more cumbersome to work with.
Creating a JsonParser
In order to create a Jackson JsonParser you first need to create a JsonFactory.
The JsonFactory is used to create JsonParser instances. The JsonFactory
class contains several createParser() methods, each taking a different JSON source as parameter.
Here is an example of creating a JsonParser that parses JSON from a string:
String carJson =
"{ \"brand\" : \"Mercedes\", \"doors\" : 5 }";
JsonFactory factory = new JsonFactory();
JsonParser parser = factory.createParser(carJson);
You can also pass a Reader, InputStream, URL, byte array or
char array to the createParser() method (actually to one of the other
overloaded createParser() versions).
Parsing JSON With the JsonParser
Once you have created a Jackson JsonParser you can use it to parse JSON. The way the JsonParser
works is by breaking the JSON up into a sequence of tokens which you can iterate one by one.
Here is a JsonParser example that simply loops through all the tokens and print them out to
System.out. This is not a very useful example, but it shows you the tokens the JSON is broken up into,
and it also shows you the basics of how to loop through the tokens.
String carJson =
"{ \"brand\" : \"Mercedes\", \"doors\" : 5 }";
JsonFactory factory = new JsonFactory();
JsonParser parser = factory.createParser(carJson);
while(!parser.isClosed()){
JsonToken jsonToken = parser.nextToken();
System.out.println("jsonToken = " + jsonToken);
}
As long as the isClosed() method of the JsonParser returns false, there are still more
tokens in the JSON source.
You obtain a JsonToken using the nextToken() of the JsonParser. You can
use this JsonToken instance to inspect the given token. The token types are represented by a set of
constants in the JsonToken class. These constants are:
START_OBJECT END_OBJECT START_ARRAY END_ARRAY FIELD_NAME VALUE_EMBEDDED_OBJECT VALUE_FALSE VALUE_TRUE VALUE_NULL VALUE_STRING VALUE_NUMBER_INT VALUE_NUMBER_FLOAT
You can use these constants to find out what type of token the current JsonToken is. You do so via
the equals() method of these constants. Here is an example:
String carJson =
"{ \"brand\" : \"Mercedes\", \"doors\" : 5 }";
JsonFactory factory = new JsonFactory();
JsonParser parser = factory.createParser(carJson);
Car car = new Car();
while(!parser.isClosed()){
JsonToken jsonToken = parser.nextToken();
if(JsonToken.FIELD_NAME.equals(jsonToken)){
String fieldName = parser.getCurrentName();
System.out.println(fieldName);
jsonToken = parser.nextToken();
if("brand".equals(fieldName)){
car.brand = parser.getValueAsString();
} else if ("doors".equals(fieldName)){
car.doors = parser.getValueAsInt();
}
}
}
System.out.println("car.brand = " + car.brand);
System.out.println("car.doors = " + car.doors);
The getCurrentName() method of the JsonParser returns the current field name, if
the token pointed to is a field name.
The getValueAsString() returns the current token value as a string, if the token pointed to is
a string field value. The getValueAsInt() returns the current token value as an int
if the token pointed to is an integer field value. The JsonParser has more similar methods for
obtaining the curren token value as different types (e.g. boolean, short, long,
float, double etc.).
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Jakob Jenkov | |
