IllegalAccessException while parsing JSON using JSONObject

Question

Hello I have a json response as part of a request i need to access the value of one of the attribute. For example, my response looks like:

{
    "data": {
        "Members": [
            {
                "id": "01",
                "name": "new york"
                
            },
            {
                "id": "02",
                "name": "chicago"                
            }
            ,
            {
                "id": "03",
                "name": "la"                
            }
        ]
    }
}

I need to extract the values "new york" , "chicago", "la". How can i do it; i tried to convert to JSON object but unable to access even "data".:

    JSONObject jsonObj = new JSONObject(response.getBody());

    JSONArray ja_data = jsonObj.getJSONArray("data");

The above code is one among various googled answers and this one results in IllegalAccessException . The complete exception:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.IllegalAccessException: class org.json.JSONObject cannot access a member of class java.lang.String (in module java.base) with modifiers "private"
    at org.json.JSONObject.populateInternalMap(JSONObject.java:349)
    at org.json.JSONObject.<init>(JSONObject.java:278)
    at GetName.getName(GetName.java:64)
    at GetName.main(GetName.java:30)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalAccessException: class org.json.JSONObject cannot access a member of class java.lang.String (in module java.base) with modifiers "private"
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.Reflection.newIllegalAccessException(Reflection.java:361)
    at java.base/java.lang.reflect.AccessibleObject.checkAccess(AccessibleObject.java:591)
    at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:558)
    at org.json.JSONObject.populateInternalMap(JSONObject.java:328)

Is there a way i can handle this. Thanks

Answer 1

you can retreive the values like below

JSONObject jsonObj = new JSONObject(response.getBody());

JSONObject ja_data = jsonObj.getJSONObject("data");
JSONArray jaarr = ja_data.getJSONArray("Members");
JSONObject obj1 = jaarr.getJSONObject(0);
System.out.println(obj1.getString("name"));

It prints "new york"

Answer 2

I think your issue is not related to the parsing of the JSON as I tested it as below :

// Escaped JSON String, same as presented in question
JSONObject jsonObj = new JSONObject("{\r\n    \"data\": {\r\n        \"Members\": [\r\n            {\r\n                \"id\": \"01\",\r\n                \"name\": \"new york\"\r\n                \r\n            },\r\n            {\r\n                \"id\": \"02\",\r\n                \"name\": \"chicago\"                \r\n            }\r\n            ,\r\n            {\r\n                \"id\": \"03\",\r\n                \"name\": \"la\"                \r\n            }\r\n        ]\r\n    }\r\n}");

// Parsed "data" as Object 
JSONObject data = jsonObj.getJSONObject("data");

// Parsed "Members" as an array
JSONArray arr = data.getJSONArray("Members");

// Selected First Internal Object inside Array of "Members"
JSONObject obje = arr.getJSONObject(0);

// Printed out the "name" which is "new york"
System.out.println(obje.getString("name"));

The above code works according to the JSON given and parsed correctly. I think please investigate your response object's access modifiers.

Alternatively, you can use GSON or Jackson to parse your JSON.