Gson deserialize json with varying value types

Question

I\'m trying to deserialize a JSONArray with Gson, one the values\' type can vary, the value \"in_wanted\" can be either a boolean or a JSONOb

Answer 1

You could do a manual parsing, something like:

JsonParser parser = new JsonParser();
JsonObject rootObject = parser.parse(yourJsonString).getAsJsonObject();
JsonObject movieObject = rootObject
                           .getAsJsonArray("movies")
                           .get(0).getAsJsonObject();
JsonElement inWantedElement = movieObject.get("in_wanted");

//Check if "in_wanted" element is a boolean or an object
if (inWantedElement.isJsonObject()) {
    //Process the element as an object...
    //for example get the element "value"...
    boolean value = inWantedElement
                      .getAsJsonObject()
                      .getAsJsonObject("profile")
                      .getAsJsonPrimitive("value")
                      .getAsBoolean();
}
else if (inWantedElement.isJsonPrimitive()) {
    //Process the element as a boolean...
    boolean inWanted = inWantedElement.getAsBoolean();
}

Note: see Gson API documentation for further info about types JsonObject, JsonArray, JsonElement, and so on...