Uses of JSON and GSON
Why do we use JSON?
The JSON format is syntactically similar to the code for creating JavaScript objects. Because of this, a JavaScript program can easily convert JSON data into JavaScript objects. Since the format is text only, JSON data can easily be sent between computers and used by any programming language.
- It is used while writing JavaScript-based applications that include browser extensions and websites.
- The JSON format is used for serializing and transmitting structured data over a network connection.
- It is primarily used to transmit data between a server and web applications.
- Web services and APIs use JSON format to provide public data.
- It can be used with modern programming languages.
JSON is a data format that is human-readable and supported by a wide variety of languages.
An example of JSON encoded data:
{
"name":"Amit",
"age":25,
"interests":["singing", "reading", "playing cricket"],
"favorites":{
"color":"red",
"cricketer":"Virat, Dhoni, Rohit"
}
}
Individual examples of XML and JSON :
JSON
{
"company": w3wiki,
"established": "2007",
"About": Best platform to learn DSA
}
XML
<GFG>
<company>w3wiki</company>
<established>2007</established>
<About> Best platform to learn DSA</About>
</GFG>
Checkout JSON Parsing in Android to understand a few important functions related to JSON in Android.
Why do we use GSON?
- It provides simple toJson() and fromJson() methods to convert Java objects to JSON and vice-versa
- It allows pre-existing unmodifiable objects to be converted to and from JSON
- It also provides extensive support for Java Generics
- It allows custom representations for objects
- GSON supports arbitrarily complex objects (with deep inheritance hierarchies and extensive use of generic types)
- GSON is a standardized library that is managed by Google
- It is a reliable, fast, and efficient extension of the Java standard library.
- This library is highly optimized
How to Download GSON in an Android Application
Gradle:
dependencies {
implementation 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.9.1'
}
Maven:
<dependency>
<groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>
<artifactId>gson</artifactId>
<version>2.9.1</version>
</dependency>
Full GSON Hello World Example
You can copy and paste this example into your IDE as long as you have GSON installed and running
Java
import com.google.gson.Gson; public class GsonHelloWorld { public static void main(String[] args) { // init class Place place = new Place(); place.setName("World"); Human human = new Human(); human.setMessage("Hi"); human.setPlace(place); // convert to json Gson gson = new Gson(); String jsonString = gson.toJson(human); // print "json {"message":"Hi","place":{"name":"World"}}" System.out.println("json " + jsonString); // convert from json Human newHuman = gson.fromJson(jsonString, Human.class); newHuman.say(); // print "Hi , World!" } private static class Human { private String message; private Place place; public String getMessage() { return message; } public void setMessage(String message) { this.message = message; } public Place getPlace() { return place; } public void setPlace(Place place) { this.place = place; } public void say() { System.out.println(); System.out.println(getMessage() + " , " + getPlace().getName() + "!"); } } private static class Place { private String name; public String getName() { return name; } public void setName(String name) { this.name = name; } } } |
Difference Between GSON and JSON in Android
JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. It is a text format for storing and transporting data. JSON is “self-describing” and easy to understand. It is a lightweight data-interchange format. JSON is used to send data between computers as it is language-independent. Code for reading and generating JSON exists in many programming languages. The JSON format was originally specified by Douglas Crockford.
On the other hand, GSON is a Java library that can be used to convert Java Objects into their JSON representation. It can also be used to convert a JSON string to an equivalent Java object. GSON can work with arbitrary Java objects including pre-existing objects that you do not have source code of. It is an open-source library developed by Google.
Note: GSON is not an officially supported Google product.