Jackson - best way writes a java list to a json array

I want to use jackson to convert a ArrayList to a JsonArray.

Event.java : this is the java bean class with two fields "field1", "field2" mapped as JsonProperty.

My goal is:

Convert

ArrayList<Event> list = new ArrayList<Event>();
    list.add(new Event("a1","a2"));
    list.add(new Event("b1","b2"));

To

[
{"field1":"a1", "field":"a2"},
{"field1":"b1", "field":"b2"}
]

The way I can think of is: writeListToJsonArray():

public void writeListToJsonArray() throws IOException {  
    ArrayList<Event> list = new ArrayList<Event>();
    list.add(new Event("a1","a2"));
    list.add(new Event("b1","b2"));

    OutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream();

    JsonFactory jfactory = new JsonFactory();
    JsonGenerator jGenerator = jfactory.createJsonGenerator(out, JsonEncoding.UTF8);
    ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
    jGenerator.writeStartArray(); // [

    for (Event event : list) {
        String e = mapper.writeValueAsString(event);
        jGenerator.writeRaw(usage);
        // here, big hassles to write a comma to separate json objects, when the last object in the list is reached, no comma 
    }

    jGenerator.writeEndArray(); // ]

    jGenerator.close();

    System.out.println(out.toString());
}

I am looking for something like:

generator.write(out, list)  

this directly convert the list to json array format and then write it to outputstream "out".

even greedier:

generator.write(out, list1)

generator.write(out, list2)

this will just convert/add in the list1, list2 into a single json array. then write it to "out"

Solution 1:

This is overly complicated, Jackson handles lists via its writer methods just as well as it handles regular objects. This should work just fine for you, assuming I have not misunderstood your question:

public void writeListToJsonArray() throws IOException {  
    final List<Event> list = new ArrayList<Event>(2);
    list.add(new Event("a1","a2"));
    list.add(new Event("b1","b2"));

    final ByteArrayOutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
    final ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();

    mapper.writeValue(out, list);

    final byte[] data = out.toByteArray();
    System.out.println(new String(data));
}

Solution 2:

I can't find toByteArray() as @atrioom said, so I use StringWriter, please try:

public void writeListToJsonArray() throws IOException {  

    //your list
    final List<Event> list = new ArrayList<Event>(2);
    list.add(new Event("a1","a2"));
    list.add(new Event("b1","b2"));


    final StringWriter sw =new StringWriter();
    final ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
    mapper.writeValue(sw, list);
    System.out.println(sw.toString());//use toString() to convert to JSON

    sw.close(); 
}

Or just use ObjectMapper#writeValueAsString:

    final ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
    System.out.println(mapper.writeValueAsString(list));