How to read and write JSON with json-simple

Json-simple is a simple java library used to encode and decode JSON. It is full compliance with JSON specification (RFC4627) and is widely used in big projects, see the website for details.

Step1 - Dependency

If you are using a maven structure for your project you can added as dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.googlecode.json-simple</groupId>
    <artifactId>json-simple</artifactId>
    <version>1.1.1</version>
</dependency>

otherwise download the jar file and attached it to the project.

Step2 - Generate the JSON object

To generate an object use JSONObject and add the content similar to Map/Hashmap.

/* Create simple object */
JSONObject object = new JSONObject();
object.put("id", new Integer(1001));
object.put("name", "John Doe");

or if you need an array you can use JSONArray:

/* json array added manually */
JSONArray array = new JSONArray();
array.add("product 1");
array.add("product 2");
	
/* json array added from an ArrayList object */
ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
list.add("list element 1");
list.add("list element 2");
list.add("list element 3");
array.addAll(list);

Also can be created complex JSON structures by adding an JSONObject on other JSONObject.

/* add the list to initial object */
object.put("list", array);

Step3 - Write the JSON object to file

To write the json to a file will use FileWriter from java.io package.

/* write the complex object to a file */
try {
	FileWriter file = new FileWriter("test.json");
	file.write(object.toString());
	file.flush();
	file.close();
	
} catch (IOException e) {
	e.printStackTrace();
}

Note: the path for the file is the folder root of the project.

Step4 - Read the JSON from file

To recreate the JSONObject json-simple library provides a class to parse the input, JSONParser and this can use multiple sources.

JSONParser parser = new JSONParser();

/* Get the file content into the JSONObject */
Object obj = parser.parse(new FileReader("test.json"));
JSONObject jsonObject = (JSONObject)obj;

From this point you have access to all object within jsonObject.

Example

Here is the print for the entire example:

package com.admfactory.json;

import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;

import org.json.simple.JSONArray;
import org.json.simple.JSONObject;
import org.json.simple.parser.JSONParser;

public class JsonSimpleTests {
	/**
	 * How to create an JSON object and write it to a file
	 */
	public static void createJSONObject() {
		System.out.println("Write an JSON Object");
		/* Create simple object */
		JSONObject object = new JSONObject();
		object.put("id", new Integer(1001));
		object.put("name", "John Doe");
		
		System.out.println("Simple object: " + object);
		
		/* json array added manualy */
		JSONArray array = new JSONArray();
		array.add("product 1");
		array.add("product 2");
		
		/* json array added from an ArrayList object */
		ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
		list.add("list element 1");
		list.add("list element 2");
		list.add("list element 3");
		array.addAll(list);
		
		System.out.println("Array object: " + array);
		
		/* add the list to initial object */
		object.put("list", array);
		
		System.out.println("Complex object:" + object);
		
		/* write the complex object to a file */
		try {
			FileWriter file = new FileWriter("test.json");
			file.write(object.toString());
			file.flush();
			file.close();
			
		} catch (IOException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
	
	/**
	 * How to read an json object from a file and display it on the console
	 * 
	 */
	public static void readJSONObject() {
		JSONParser parser = new JSONParser();
		try {
			/* Get the file content into the JSONObject */
			Object obj = parser.parse(new FileReader("test.json"));
			JSONObject jsonObject = (JSONObject)obj;
			
			System.out.println("Object from file:" + jsonObject);
			
			/* Read simple value */
			Long id = (Long)jsonObject.get("id");
			System.out.println("id:"+id);

			/* Read a list */
			ArrayList<String> list = (ArrayList<String>)jsonObject.get("list");
			for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
				System.out.println(i+ ": " + list.get(i));
			}
		} catch (Exception e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
		
	}
	
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		System.out.println("json-simple examples");
		System.out.println();
		
		createJSONObject();
		
		System.out.println();
		
		readJSONObject();
	}
	
}

Output

The console output from our test program. Check also the content of the test.json file located in root folder of your project.

json-simple examples

Write an JSON Object
Simple object: {"id":1001,"name":"John Doe"}
Array object: ["product 1","product 2","list element 1","list element 2","list element 3"]
Complex object:{"id":1001,"name":"John Doe","list":["product 1","product 2","list element 1","list element 2","list element 3"]}

Object from file:{"id":1001,"name":"John Doe","list":["product 1","product 2","list element 1","list element 2","list element 3"]}
id:1001
0: product 1
1: product 2
2: list element 1
3: list element 2
4: list element 3

References

• Json-simple website.
• Maven Search Json-simple page.