Google Gson - deserialize list object? (generic type)

Question

I want to transfer a list object via Google Gson, but I don\'t know how to deserialize generic types.

What I tried after looking at this (BalusC\'s answer):

Answer 1

I want to add for one more possibility. If you don't want to use TypeToken and want to convert json objects array to an ArrayList, then you can proceed like this:

If your json structure is like:

{

"results": [
    {
        "a": 100,
        "b": "value1",
        "c": true
    },
    {
        "a": 200,
        "b": "value2",
        "c": false
    },
    {
        "a": 300,
        "b": "value3",
        "c": true
    }
]

}

and your class structure is like:

public class ClassName implements Parcelable {

    public ArrayList<InnerClassName> results = new ArrayList<InnerClassName>();
    public static class InnerClassName {
        int a;
        String b;
        boolean c;      
    }
}

then you can parse it like:

Gson gson = new Gson();
final ClassName className = gson.fromJson(data, ClassName.class);
int currentTotal = className.results.size();

Now you can access each element of className object.

Answer 2

Refer to this post. Java Type Generic as Argument for GSON

I have better solution for this. Here's the wrapper class for list so the wrapper can store the exactly type of list.

public class ListOfJson<T> implements ParameterizedType
{
  private Class<?> wrapped;

  public ListOfJson(Class<T> wrapper)
  {
    this.wrapped = wrapper;
  }

  @Override
  public Type[] getActualTypeArguments()
  {
      return new Type[] { wrapped };
  }

  @Override
  public Type getRawType()
  {
    return List.class;
  }

  @Override
  public Type getOwnerType()
  {
    return null;
  }
}

And then, the code can be simple:

public static <T> List<T> toList(String json, Class<T> typeClass)
{
    return sGson.fromJson(json, new ListOfJson<T>(typeClass));
}

Answer 3

In My case @uncaught_exceptions's answer didn't work, I had to use List.class instead of java.lang.reflect.Type:

String jsonDuplicatedItems = request.getSession().getAttribute("jsonDuplicatedItems").toString();
List<Map.Entry<Product, Integer>> entries = gson.fromJson(jsonDuplicatedItems, List.class);

Answer 4

As it answers my original question, I have accepted doc_180's answer, but if someone runs into this problem again, I will answer the 2nd half of my question as well:

The NullPointerError I described had nothing to do with the List itself, but with its content!

The "MyClass" class didn't have a "no args" constructor, and neither had its superclass one. Once I added a simple "MyClass()" constructor to MyClass and its superclass, everything worked fine, including the List serialization and deserialization as suggested by doc_180.

Answer 5

Wep, another way to achieve the same result. We use it for its readability.

Instead of doing this hard-to-read sentence:

Type listType = new TypeToken<ArrayList<YourClass>>(){}.getType();
List<YourClass> list = new Gson().fromJson(jsonArray, listType);

Create a empty class that extends a List of your object:

public class YourClassList extends ArrayList<YourClass> {}

And use it when parsing the JSON:

List<YourClass> list = new Gson().fromJson(jsonArray, YourClassList.class);

Answer 6

Refer to example 2 for 'Type' class understanding of Gson.

Example 1: In this deserilizeResturant we used Employee[] array and get the details

public static void deserializeResturant(){

       String empList ="[{\"name\":\"Ram\",\"empId\":1},{\"name\":\"Surya\",\"empId\":2},{\"name\":\"Prasants\",\"empId\":3}]";
       Gson gson = new Gson();
       Employee[] emp = gson.fromJson(empList, Employee[].class);
       int numberOfElementInJson = emp.length();
       System.out.println("Total JSON Elements" + numberOfElementInJson);
       for(Employee e: emp){
           System.out.println(e.getName());
           System.out.println(e.getEmpId());
       }
   }

Example 2:

//Above deserilizeResturant used Employee[] array but what if we need to use List<Employee>
public static void deserializeResturantUsingList(){

    String empList ="[{\"name\":\"Ram\",\"empId\":1},{\"name\":\"Surya\",\"empId\":2},{\"name\":\"Prasants\",\"empId\":3}]";
    Gson gson = new Gson();

    // Additionally we need to se the Type then only it accepts List<Employee> which we sent here empTypeList
    Type empTypeList = new TypeToken<ArrayList<Employee>>(){}.getType();


    List<Employee> emp = gson.fromJson(empList, empTypeList);
    int numberOfElementInJson = emp.size();
    System.out.println("Total JSON Elements" + numberOfElementInJson);
    for(Employee e: emp){
        System.out.println(e.getName());
        System.out.println(e.getEmpId());
    }
}