Simplest way to read json from a URL in java

Question

This might be a dumb question but what is the simplest way to read and parse JSON from URL in Java?

In Groovy, it\

Answer 1

I have found this to be the easiest way by far.

Use this method:

public static String getJSON(String url) {
        HttpsURLConnection con = null;
        try {
            URL u = new URL(url);
            con = (HttpsURLConnection) u.openConnection();

            con.connect();


            BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(con.getInputStream()));
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            String line;
            while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
                sb.append(line + "\n");
            }
            br.close();
            return sb.toString();


        } catch (MalformedURLException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            if (con != null) {
                try {
                    con.disconnect();
                } catch (Exception ex) {
                    ex.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

And use it like this:

String json = getJSON(url);
JSONObject obj;
   try {
         obj = new JSONObject(json);
         JSONArray results_arr = obj.getJSONArray("results");
         final int n = results_arr.length();
            for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
                // get the place id of each object in JSON (Google Search API)
                String place_id = results_arr.getJSONObject(i).getString("place_id");
            }


   }