Can't Convert string to JsonArray

To have a string value inside your JSON array, you must remember to backslash escape your double-quotes in your Java program. See the declaration of s below.

String s = "[[\"110917       \", 3.0099999999999998, -0.72999999999999998, 2.8500000000000001, 2.96, 685.0, 38603.0], [\"110917    \", 2.71, 0.20999999999999999, 2.8199999999999998, 2.8999999999999999, 2987.0, 33762.0]]";

Your code in the main() method works fine. Below is just a minor modification of your code in the main() method.

System.out.println("String to Json Array Stmt");
JsonParser parser = new JsonParser();
JsonElement tradeElement = parser.parse(s);
JsonArray trade = tradeElement.getAsJsonArray();
System.out.println(trade);

Lastly, remember to prefix your statement "com.google.gson.*" with the keyword "import", as shown below.

import com.google.gson.*;

I don't see the problem. This code runs fine for me:

import com.google.gson.JsonArray;
import com.google.gson.JsonElement;
import com.google.gson.JsonParser;


public class GsonExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String s= "[[\"110917\", 3.0099999999999998, -0.72999999999999998," +
                "2.8500000000000001, 2.96, 685.0, 38603.0], [\"110917\", 2.71," +
                "0.20999999999999999, 2.8199999999999998, 2.8999999999999999," +
                "2987.0, 33762.0]]";


        JsonParser  parser = new JsonParser();
        JsonElement elem   = parser.parse( s );

        JsonArray elemArr = elem.getAsJsonArray();
        System.out.println( elemArr );
    }
}

The only problem maybe is that you failed to properly escape the double quotes in your s string literal.