How to Parse JSON Array with Gson

I was looking for a way to parse object arrays in a more generic way; here is my contribution:

CollectionDeserializer.java:

import java.lang.reflect.ParameterizedType;
import java.lang.reflect.Type;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.Iterator;

import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.JsonArray;
import com.google.gson.JsonDeserializationContext;
import com.google.gson.JsonDeserializer;
import com.google.gson.JsonElement;
import com.google.gson.JsonParseException;

public class CollectionDeserializer implements JsonDeserializer<Collection<?>> {

    @Override
    public Collection<?> deserialize(JsonElement json, Type typeOfT,
            JsonDeserializationContext context) throws JsonParseException {
        Type realType = ((ParameterizedType)typeOfT).getActualTypeArguments()[0];

        return parseAsArrayList(json, realType);
    }

    /**
     * @param serializedData
     * @param type
     * @return
     */
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    public <T> ArrayList<T> parseAsArrayList(JsonElement json, T type) {
        ArrayList<T> newArray = new ArrayList<T>();
        Gson gson = new Gson();

        JsonArray array= json.getAsJsonArray();
        Iterator<JsonElement> iterator = array.iterator();

        while(iterator.hasNext()){
            JsonElement json2 = (JsonElement)iterator.next();
            T object = (T) gson.fromJson(json2, (Class<?>)type);
            newArray.add(object);
        }

        return newArray;
    }

}

JSONParsingTest.java:

public class JSONParsingTest {

    List<World> worlds;

    @Test
    public void grantThatDeserializerWorksAndParseObjectArrays(){

        String worldAsString = "{\"worlds\": [" +
            "{\"name\":\"name1\",\"id\":1}," +
            "{\"name\":\"name2\",\"id\":2}," +
            "{\"name\":\"name3\",\"id\":3}" +
        "]}";

        GsonBuilder builder = new GsonBuilder();
        builder.registerTypeAdapter(Collection.class, new CollectionDeserializer());
        Gson gson = builder.create();
        Object decoded = gson.fromJson((String)worldAsString, JSONParsingTest.class);

        assertNotNull(decoded);
        assertTrue(JSONParsingTest.class.isInstance(decoded));

        JSONParsingTest decodedObject = (JSONParsingTest)decoded;
        assertEquals(3, decodedObject.worlds.size());
        assertEquals((Long)2L, decodedObject.worlds.get(1).getId());
    }
}

World.java:

public class World {
    private String name;
    private Long id;

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public Long getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(Long id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

}

Type listType = new TypeToken<List<Post>>() {}.getType();
List<Post> posts = new Gson().fromJson(jsonOutput.toString(), listType);

You can parse the JSONArray directly, don't need to wrap your Post class with PostEntity one more time and don't need new JSONObject().toString() either:

Gson gson = new Gson();
String jsonOutput = "Your JSON String";
Type listType = new TypeToken<List<Post>>(){}.getType();
List<Post> posts = gson.fromJson(jsonOutput, listType);

Hope that helps.

To conver in Object Array

Gson gson=new Gson();
ElementType [] refVar=gson.fromJson(jsonString,ElementType[].class);

To convert as post type

Gson gson=new Gson();
Post [] refVar=gson.fromJson(jsonString,Post[].class);

To read it as List of objects TypeToken can be used

List<Post> posts=(List<Post>)gson.fromJson(jsonString, 
                     new TypeToken<List<Post>>(){}.getType());