how to parse JSON file with GSON

Question

I have a very simple JSON with reviews for products, like:

{
  \"reviewerID\": \"A2XVJBSRI3SWDI\", 
  \"asin\": \"0000031887\", 
  \"reviewerName\": \"abigai         


        

Answer 1

just parse as an array:

Review[] reviews = new Gson().fromJson(jsonString, Review[].class);

then if you need you can also create a list in this way:

List<Review> asList = Arrays.asList(reviews);

P.S. your json string should be look like this:

[
    {
        "reviewerID": "A2SUAM1J3GNN3B1",
        "asin": "0000013714",
        "reviewerName": "J. McDonald",
        "helpful": [2, 3],
        "reviewText": "I bought this for my husband who plays the piano.",
        "overall": 5.0,
        "summary": "Heavenly Highway Hymns",
        "unixReviewTime": 1252800000,
        "reviewTime": "09 13, 2009"
    },
    {
        "reviewerID": "A2SUAM1J3GNN3B2",
        "asin": "0000013714",
        "reviewerName": "J. McDonald",
        "helpful": [2, 3],
        "reviewText": "I bought this for my husband who plays the piano.",
        "overall": 5.0,
        "summary": "Heavenly Highway Hymns",
        "unixReviewTime": 1252800000,
        "reviewTime": "09 13, 2009"
    },

    [...]
]

Answer 2

You have to fetch the whole data in the list and then do the iteration as it is a file and will become inefficient otherwise.

private static final Type REVIEW_TYPE = new TypeToken<List<Review>>() {
}.getType();
Gson gson = new Gson();
JsonReader reader = new JsonReader(new FileReader(filename));
List<Review> data = gson.fromJson(reader, REVIEW_TYPE); // contains the whole reviews list
data.toScreen(); // prints to screen some values

Answer 3

In case you need to parse it from a file, I find the best solution to use a HashMap<String, String> to use it inside your java code for better manipultion.

Try out this code:

public HashMap<String, String> myMethodName() throws FileNotFoundException
{
    String path = "absolute path to your file";
    BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(path));

    Gson gson = new Gson();
    HashMap<String, String> json = gson.fromJson(bufferedReader, HashMap.class);
    return json;
}