Jayway JsonPath

A Java DSL for reading JSON documents.

Jayway JsonPath is a Java port of Stefan Goessner JsonPath implementation.

Getting Started

JsonPath is available at the Central Maven Repository. Maven users add this to your POM.

[!NOTE]
Version 3.0.0 Uses Java 17 baseline to support Jackson 3

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.jayway.jsonpath</groupId>
    <artifactId>json-path</artifactId>
    <version>3.0.0</version>
</dependency>

If you need help ask questions at Stack Overflow. Tag the question 'jsonpath' and 'java'.

JsonPath expressions always refer to a JSON structure in the same way as XPath expression are used in combination with an XML document. The "root member object" in JsonPath is always referred to as $ regardless if it is an object or array.

JsonPath expressions can use the dot–notation

$.store.book[0].title

or the bracket–notation

$['store']['book'][0]['title']

Operators

Functions

Functions can be invoked at the tail end of a path - the input to a function is the output of the path expression. The function output is dictated by the function itself.

Filter Operators

Filters are logical expressions used to filter arrays. A typical filter would be [?(@.age > 18)] where @ represents the current item being processed. More complex filters can be created with logical operators && and ||. String literals must be enclosed by single or double quotes ([?(@.color == 'blue')] or [?(@.color == "blue")]).

Path Examples

Given the json

{
    "store": {
        "book": [
            {
                "category": "reference",
                "author": "Nigel Rees",
                "title": "Sayings of the Century",
                "price": 8.95
            },
            {
                "category": "fiction",
                "author": "Evelyn Waugh",
                "title": "Sword of Honour",
                "price": 12.99
            },
            {
                "category": "fiction",
                "author": "Herman Melville",
                "title": "Moby Dick",
                "isbn": "0-553-21311-3",
                "price": 8.99
            },
            {
                "category": "fiction",
                "author": "J. R. R. Tolkien",
                "title": "The Lord of the Rings",
                "isbn": "0-395-19395-8",
                "price": 22.99
            }
        ],
        "bicycle": {
            "color": "red",
            "price": 19.95
        }
    },
    "expensive": 10
}

Reading a Document

The simplest most straight forward way to use JsonPath is via the static read API.

String json = "...";

List<String> authors = JsonPath.read(json, "$.store.book[*].author");

If you only want to read once this is OK. In case you need to read an other path as well this is not the way to go since the document will be parsed every time you call JsonPath.read(...). To avoid the problem you can parse the json first.

String json = "...";
Object document = Configuration.defaultConfiguration().jsonProvider().parse(json);

String author0 = JsonPath.read(document, "$.store.book[0].author");
String author1 = JsonPath.read(document, "$.store.book[1].author");

JsonPath also provides a fluent API. This is also the most flexible one.

String json = "...";

ReadContext ctx = JsonPath.parse(json);

List<String> authorsOfBooksWithISBN = ctx.read("$.store.book[?(@.isbn)].author");


List<Map<String, Object>> expensiveBooks = JsonPath
        .using(configuration)
        .parse(json)
        .read("$.store.book[?(@.price > 10)]", List.class);

What is Returned When?

When using JsonPath in java its important to know what type you expect in your result. JsonPath will automatically try to cast the result to the type expected by the invoker.

//Will throw an java.lang.ClassCastException    
List<String> list = JsonPath.parse(json).read("$.store.book[0].author");

//Works fine
String author = JsonPath.parse(json).read("$.store.book[0].author");

When evaluating a path you need to understand the concept of when a path is definite. A path is indefinite if it contains:

• .. - a deep scan operator
• ?(<expression>) - an expression
• [<number>, <number> (, <number>)] - multiple array indexes

Indefinite paths always returns a list (as represented by current JsonProvider).

By default a simple object mapper is provided by the MappingProvider SPI. This allows you to specify the return type you want and the MappingProvider will try to perform the mapping. In the example below mapping between Long and Date is demonstrated.

String json = "{\"date_as_long\" : 1411455611975}";

Date date = JsonPath.parse(json).read("$['date_as_long']", Date.class);

If you configure JsonPath to use JacksonMappingProvider, Jackson3MappingProvider, GsonMappingProvider, or JakartaJsonProvider you can even map your JsonPath output directly into POJO's.

Book book = JsonPath.parse(json).read("$.store.book[0]", Book.class);

To obtain full generics type information, use TypeRef.

TypeRef<List<String>> typeRef = new TypeRef<List<String>>() {
};

List<String> titles = JsonPath.parse(JSON_DOCUMENT).read("$.store.book[*].title", typeRef);

Predicates

There are three different ways to create filter predicates in JsonPath.

Inline Predicates

Inline predicates are the ones defined in the path.

List<Map<String, Object>> books = JsonPath.parse(json)
        .read("$.store.book[?(@.price < 10)]");

You can use && and || to combine multiple predicates [?(@.price < 10 && @.category == 'fiction')] , [?(@.category == 'reference' || @.price > 10)].

You can use ! to negate a predicate [?(!(@.price < 10 && @.category == 'fiction'))].

Filter Predicates

Predicates can be built using the Filter API as shown below:

import static com.jayway.jsonpath.JsonPath.parse;
import static com.jayway.jsonpath.Criteria.where;
import static com.jayway.jsonpath.Filter.filter;
...
        ...

Filter cheapFictionFilter = filter(
        where("category").is("fiction").and("price").lte(10D)
);

List<Map<String, Object>> books =
        parse(json).read("$.store.book[?]", cheapFictionFilter);

Notice the placeholder ? for the filter in the path. When multiple filters are provided they are applied in order where the number of placeholders must match the number of provided filters. You can specify multiple predicate placeholders in one filter operation [?, ?], both predicates must match.

Filters can also be combined with 'OR' and 'AND'

Filter fooOrBar = filter(
        where("foo").exists(true)).or(where("bar").exists(true)
);

Filter fooAndBar = filter(
        where("foo").exists(true)).and(where("bar").exists(true)
);

Roll Your Own

Third option is to implement your own predicates

```java Predicate booksWithISBN = new Predicate() { @Override public boolean apply(PredicateContext ctx) { return ctx.item(Map.class).containsKey("isbn"); } };

List> boo