Retrofit parse dynamic JSON response key (Android)

Question

I've a JSON structure given below. As you can see, the branch key can either be an array or an object. How am i supposed to handle this? Basically if there are more than 1 instances of branch , it becomes an array, else it continues to show one single object. How should i handle this. It gives me a conversion error at runtime since my POJO class contains Branch branch and this is an object decleration. If i want to handle the array decleration, it will be Branch[] branch . How can i make Branch class behave dynamically based on every tree_type by position.

tree: [
{
 tree_type: 
 {

   branch: 
   {
    field1 :val1 
    field2 : val2
   }

 }
 tree_type: 
 {

   branch: 
   {
    field1 :val1 
    field2 : val2
   }

 }
 tree_type: 
 {

   branch: 
   [
    {
        field1 :val1 
        field2 : val2

    } 
    {
        field1 :val1 
        field2 : val2

    } 
    {
        field1 :val1 
        field2 : val2

    } 
   ]

 }
}
],

Answer 1

You have to retrieve and check the type of the the "branch" object.

Try this:

List<Branch> branches = new ArrayList<>();

if (jsonObject.has("branch") && jsonObject.get("branch") instanceof JSONObject) {
  // it is a JSONObject
  JSONObject branch = jsonObject.getJSONObject("branch");

  // parse your branch : Branch branchObject = ...
  branches.add(branchObject);

} else if (jsonObject.has("branch") && jsonObject.get("branch") instanceof JSONArray) {
  // it is an JSONArray
  JSONArray branchArray = jsonObject.getJSONArray("branch");

  // loop branches
  for (int i = 0; i < branchArray.length(); i++)
  {
    if (branchArray.get(i) instanceof JSONObject) {
      JSONObject branch = branchArray.getJSONObject(i);

      // parse your branch : Branch branchObject = ...
      branches.add(branchObject);
    }
  }
}