How to use Jackson to deserialise an array of objects

Question

The Jackson data binding documentation indicates that Jackson supports deserialising \"Arrays of all supported types\" but I can\'t figure out the exact syntax for this.

Answer 1

you could also create a class which extends ArrayList:

public static class MyList extends ArrayList<Myclass> {}

and then use it like:

List<MyClass> list = objectMapper.readValue(json, MyList.class);

Answer 2

First create a mapper :

import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;// in play 2.3
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();

As Array:

MyClass[] myObjects = mapper.readValue(json, MyClass[].class);

As List:

List<MyClass> myObjects = mapper.readValue(jsonInput, new TypeReference<List<MyClass>>(){});

Another way to specify the List type:

List<MyClass> myObjects = mapper.readValue(jsonInput, mapper.getTypeFactory().constructCollectionType(List.class, MyClass.class));

Answer 3

try {
    ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
    JsonFactory f = new JsonFactory();
    List<User> lstUser = null;
    JsonParser jp = f.createJsonParser(new File("C:\\maven\\user.json"));
    TypeReference<List<User>> tRef = new TypeReference<List<User>>() {};
    lstUser = mapper.readValue(jp, tRef);
    for (User user : lstUser) {
        System.out.println(user.toString());
    }

} catch (JsonGenerationException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
} catch (JsonMappingException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

Answer 4

I was unable to use this answer because my linter won't allow unchecked casts.

Here is an alternative you can use. I feel it is actually a cleaner solution.

public <T> List<T> parseJsonArray(String json, Class<T> clazz) throws JsonProcessingException {
  var tree = objectMapper.readTree(json);
  var list = new ArrayList<T>();
  for (JsonNode jsonNode : tree) {
    list.add(objectMapper.treeToValue(jsonNode, clazz));
  }
  return list;
}

Answer 5

From Eugene Tskhovrebov

List<MyClass> myObjects = Arrays.asList(mapper.readValue(json, MyClass[].class))

This solution seems to be the best for me

Answer 6

First create an instance of ObjectReader which is thread-safe.

ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
ObjectReader objectReader = objectMapper.reader().forType(new TypeReference<List<MyClass>>(){});

Then use it :

List<MyClass> result = objectReader.readValue(inputStream);