Parsing internal JSON file in JSONArray in Java using org.json

Question

I would like to be able to parse a JSON file that is structured something like:

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "name": {
      "first": "name",
      "secound": "name",
      "last": "name"
    },
    "skills": [
      "python",
      "javascript"
    ],
    "otherInfo": {
      "something": 45,
      "something2": 49
    }
  },
  {
    "id": 2,
    "name": {
      "first": "name",
      "secound": "name",
      "last": "name"
    },
    "skills": [
      "python",
      "javascript"
    ],
    "otherInfo": {
      "something": 45,
      "something2": 49
    }
  }
etc...
]

into something looking like

array(
    [0] => array(
                   0 => "id"
                   1 => "firstname"
                   2 => "otherData"
                ),
    [1] => array(
                   0 => "id"
                   1 => "firstname"
                   2 => "otherData"
                ),
etc...
)

I'm pretty sure i have an idea on how to convert it into the format I want, but im having trouble actually reading the data from the file.

The two major issues im having:

• Reading it from inside the jar.
• Most of the examples used json.simple, and the json library i'm using doesn't seem to have that.

I tried some examples online, and a couple of the answers on this post but no luck the biggest issue is that all of them are giving examples for reading an external file, while I'm trying to read one that is packaged inside the jar.

My project tree:

MyProject
      L src
          L myPackage
                  L MyClass.java
                  L MyJsonFile.json

The closest thing that I'm guessing almost worked is this (from the link above):

import org.json.JSONArray;

//code

JSONArray myJSONArray = new JSONArray(Main.class.getResourceAsStream("myFile.json"));

But that only seems to throw an error: org.json.JSONException: JSONArray initial value should be a string or collection or array.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The problem is org.json.JSONArray will only accept String , Collection or Array but you are trying to pass the InputStream object. which is what error messages also says

org.json.JSONException: JSONArray initial value should be a string or collection or array

So first convert the InputStream into String

InputStream  inputStream = Main.class.getResourceAsStream("myFile.json");

InputStreamReader isReader = new InputStreamReader(inputStream);

BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(isReader);
  StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
  String str;
  while((str = reader.readLine())!= null){
     sb.append(str);
  }

And then convert it into JSONArray

JSONArray myJSONArray = new JSONArray(sb.toString());

After here you can iterate the JSONArray using for loop, like here