GSON - Null Object Support

Google GSON Tutorial

Gson by default generates optimized JSON content ignoring the NULL values. But GsonBuilder provides flags to show NULL values in the JSON output using the GsonBuilder.serializeNulls() method.

GsonBuilder builder = new GsonBuilder(); 
builder.serializeNulls(); 
Gson gson = builder.create();

Example without serializeNulls Call

package net.javaguides.gson;

import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.GsonBuilder;

/**
 * 
 * @author Ramesh Fadatare
 *
 */
public class GSONNullSupport {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Gson gson = new GsonBuilder().setPrettyPrinting().create();

        User user = new User();
        user.setId(100);
        user.setLastName("Fadatare");
        user.setAge(28);

        String userJson = gson.toJson(user);
        System.out.println(userJson);
    }
}

class User {

    private int id;
    private String firstName;
    private String lastName;
    private int age;
    private String gender;
    private String password;

    public int getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(int i) {
        this.id = i;
    }

    public String getFirstName() {
        return firstName;
    }

    public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
    }

    public String getLastName() {
        return lastName;
    }

    public void setLastName(String lastName) {
        this.lastName = lastName;
    }

    public int getAge() {
        return age;
    }

    public void setAge(int age) {
        this.age = age;
    }

    public String getGender() {
        return gender;
    }

    public void setGender(String gender) {
        this.gender = gender;
    }

    public String getPassword() {
        return password;
    }

    public void setPassword(String password) {
        this.password = password;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "User [id=" + id + ", firstName=" + firstName + ", lastName=" + lastName + ", age=" + age + ", gender=" +
            gender + "]";
    }
}

Output:

{
  "id": 100,
  "lastName": "Fadatare",
  "age": 28
}

Note that in the above JSON, the fields id, lastName, and gender are ignored because these fields were not set to null in the User object.

Example with a serializeNulls call

package net.javaguides.gson;

import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.GsonBuilder;

/**
 * 
 * @author Ramesh Fadatare
 *
 */
public class GSONNullSupport {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        GsonBuilder builder = new GsonBuilder();
        builder.serializeNulls();
        builder.setPrettyPrinting();
        Gson gson = builder.create();

        User user = new User();
        user.setId(100);
        user.setLastName("Fadatare");
        user.setAge(28);

        String userJson = gson.toJson(user);
        System.out.println(userJson);

        User user2 = gson.fromJson(userJson, User.class);
        System.out.println(user2);
    }
}

class User {

    private int id;
    private String firstName;
    private String lastName;
    private int age;
    private String gender;
    private String password;

    public int getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(int i) {
        this.id = i;
    }

    public String getFirstName() {
        return firstName;
    }

    public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
    }

    public String getLastName() {
        return lastName;
    }

    public void setLastName(String lastName) {
        this.lastName = lastName;
    }

    public int getAge() {
        return age;
    }

    public void setAge(int age) {
        this.age = age;
    }

    public String getGender() {
        return gender;
    }

    public void setGender(String gender) {
        this.gender = gender;
    }

    public String getPassword() {
        return password;
    }

    public void setPassword(String password) {
        this.password = password;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "User [id=" + id + ", firstName=" + firstName + ", lastName=" + lastName + ", age=" + age + ", gender=" +
            gender + "]";
    }
}

Output:

{
  "id": 100,
  "firstName": null,
  "lastName": "Fadatare",
  "age": 28,
  "gender": null,
  "password": null
}
User [id=100, firstName=null, lastName=Fadatare, age=28, gender=null]