I want to transfer a list object via Google Gson, but I don't know how to deserialize generic types.
What I tried after looking at this (BalusC's answer):
MyClass mc = new Gson().fromJson(result, new List<MyClass>(){}.getClass());
but then I get an error in eclipse saying "The type new List(){} must implement the inherited abstract method…" and if I use a quick fix I get a monster of over 20 method stubs.
I am pretty sure that there is an easier solution, but I seem unable to find it!
Edit:
Now I have
Type listType = new TypeToken<List<MyClass>>()
{
}.getType();
MyClass mc = new Gson().fromJson(result, listType);
However, I do get the following exception at the "fromJson" line:
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.apache.harmony.luni.lang.reflect.ListOfTypes.length(ListOfTypes.java:47)
at org.apache.harmony.luni.lang.reflect.ImplForType.toString(ImplForType.java:83)
at java.lang.StringBuilder.append(StringBuilder.java:203)
at com.google.gson.JsonDeserializerExceptionWrapper.deserialize(JsonDeserializerExceptionWrapper.java:56)
at com.google.gson.JsonDeserializationVisitor.invokeCustomDeserializer(JsonDeserializationVisitor.java:88)
at com.google.gson.JsonDeserializationVisitor.visitUsingCustomHandler(JsonDeserializationVisitor.java:76)
at com.google.gson.ObjectNavigator.accept(ObjectNavigator.java:106)
at com.google.gson.JsonDeserializationContextDefault.fromJsonArray(JsonDeserializationContextDefault.java:64)
at com.google.gson.JsonDeserializationContextDefault.deserialize(JsonDeserializationContextDefault.java:49)
at com.google.gson.Gson.fromJson(Gson.java:568)
at com.google.gson.Gson.fromJson(Gson.java:515)
at com.google.gson.Gson.fromJson(Gson.java:484)
at com.google.gson.Gson.fromJson(Gson.java:434)
I do catch JsonParseExceptions and "result" is not null.
I checked listType with the debugger and got the following:
- list Type
- args = ListOfTypes
- list = null
- resolvedTypes = Type[ 1 ]
- loader = PathClassLoader
- ownerType0 = null
- ownerTypeRes = null
- rawType = Class (java.util.ArrayList)
- rawTypeName = "java.util.ArrayList"
- args = ListOfTypes
so it seems the "getClass" invocation didn't work properly. Any suggestions…?
Edit2:
I'v checked on the Gson User Guide. It mentions a Runtime Exception that should happen during parsing a generic type to Json. I did it "wrong" (not shown above), just as in the example, but didn't get that exception at all. So I changed the serialization as in the user guide suggested. Didn't help, though.
Edit3:
Solved, see my answer below.
Best Answer
Method to deserialize generic collection:
Since several people in the comments have mentioned it, here's an explanation of how the
TypeToken
class is being used. The constructionnew TypeToken<...>() {}.getType()
captures a compile-time type (between the<
and>
) into a runtimejava.lang.reflect.Type
object. Unlike aClass
object, which can only represent a raw (erased) type, theType
object can represent any type in the Java language, including a parameterized instantiation of a generic type.The
TypeToken
class itself does not have a public constructor, because you're not supposed to construct it directly. Instead, you always construct an anonymous subclass (hence the{}
, which is a necessary part of this expression).Due to type erasure, the
TypeToken
class is only able to capture types that are fully known at compile time. (That is, you can't donew TypeToken<List<T>>() {}.getType()
for a type parameterT
.)For more information, see the documentation for the
TypeToken
class.