Background
I have a list of strings (records) that are dynamically created by a class. Each record may have different keys (e.g. favorite_pizza
on first, favorite_candy
on second).
// Note: These records are dynamically created and not stored
// in this way. This is simply for display purposes.
List<String> records =
Arrays.asList(
"{\"name\":\"Bob\",\"age\":40,\"favorite_pizza\":\"Cheese\"}",
"{\"name\":\"Jill\",\"age\":22,\"favorite_candy\":\"Swedish Fish\"}");
The list of records is then passed to a separate HTTP request class.
public Response addRecords(List<String> records) {
...
}
Inside the HTTP request service, I want to build a JSON request body:
{
"records": [
{
"name": "Bob",
"age": 40,
"favorite_pizza": "Cheese"
},
{
"name": "Jill",
"age": 22,
"favorite_candy": "Swedish Fish"
}
]
}
I'm using org.json.JSONObject to add the records
key and create the request body:
JSONObject body = new JSONObject();
// Add the "records" key
body.put("records", records);
// Create the request body
body.toString();
Issues
When I run my junit test in IntelliJ, the request body contains a backslash before each quote:
org.junit.ComparisonFailure:
Expected :"{"records":["{"name":"Bob","age":40,"favorite_pizza":"Cheese"}","{"name":"Jill","age":22,"favorite_candy":"Swedish Fish"}"]}"
Actual :"{"records":["{\"name\":\"Bob\",\"age\":40,\"favorite_pizza\":\"Cheese\"}","{\"name\":\"Jill\",\"age\":22,\"favorite_candy\":\"Swedish Fish\"}"]}"
And when I make the request it fails because the body is not formatted correctly:
{
"records": [
"{\"name\":\"Bob\",\"age\":40,\"favorite_pizza\":\"Cheese\"}",
"{\"name\":\"Jill\",\"age\":22,\"favorite_candy\":\"Swedish Fish\"}"
]
}
Questions
- Why is JSONObject including the backslashes before each quote?
- How do I remove the backslashes?
You are creating a list of string, which is not what you want.
You should instead create a list of objects (Maps)
Map<String, Object> m1 = new LinkedHashMap<>();
m1.put("name", "Bob");
m1.put("age", 40);
m1.put("favorite_pizza", "Cheese");
LinkedHashMap<String, Object> m2 = new LinkedHashMap<>();
m2.put("name", "Jill");
m2.put("age", 22);
m2.put("favorite_candy", "Swedish Fish");
List<LinkedHashMap<String, Object>> records = Arrays.asList(m1,m2);
JSONObject body = new JSONObject();
// Add the "records" key
body.put("records", records);
This is a quite common mistake (it seems), to try to serialize strings formatted like json objects expecting is the same thing as passing a the object itself.
UPDATE:
Or if you have a json serialized object list then ...
List<String> recordSource =
Arrays.asList(
"{\"name\":\"Bob\",\"age\":40,\"favorite_pizza\":\"Cheese\"}",
"{\"name\":\"Jill\",\"age\":22,\"favorite_candy\":\"Swedish Fish\"}");
List<JSONObject> records =
recordSource.stream().map(JSONObject::new).collect(Collectors.toList());
JSONObject body = new JSONObject();
// Add the "records" key
body.put("records", records);
System.out.println(body.toString());