question about getString method in JSON

[Mark Curlette]

Hello,
Have you all have a great day. I am new to JSON and I try to use it in my first project.
I have a question regarding the getString method in JSON which I try to get your help.

I am using net.sf.json library and my json object looks like the following :

 [
        {
      "firstName": "Great Doctor",
      "middleName": null,
      "lastName": " test",
      "honorifics": "Doctor ",
      "title": "Instructor of  Medicine",
      "specialty":       [
        "Internal Medicine",
        "Hospitalist"
      ],
      "hospitalAffiliation": "Beverly Hill Hospital",
       "sex": null
      },
        {
      "firstName": "Charles",
      "middleName": null,
      "lastName": " Prince",
      "honorifics": "Doctor",
      "title": null,
      "specialty":       [
        "Cardiothoracic Surgery",
        "Thoracic Surgery"
      ],
    
      "geocode": "33.90877,-84.351814",
      "hospitalAffiliation": null,
     "sex":null
     },

I have a question that I would like to ask relating to an element called "geocode" which exists on my second record but it does not exist on my first record; so it gives me an error when I search for it in the following code :

	if (jsonObj.getString ("geocode") != null)
	  System.out.println ("Geocode is " + jsonObj.getString ("geocode"));

and the error message was :

 net.sf.json.JSONException: JSONObject["geocode"] not found.
	at net.sf.json.JSONObject.getString(JSONObject.java:2092)

My goal is to be able to get "geocode" since it appears in some of my record but not all ; but i don't know yet on how to approach it.

I would like to seek your helps and expertise if you know how to handle it.

Thanks so much in advance for all of your help.

Bill

[lokesh sree]

Hi,
A quick look at the javadocs for the library seems to say that there is an alternative method optString() which you can use. You can look at http://json-lib.sourceforge.net/apidocs/net/sf/json/JSONObject.html#optString(java.lang.String)

Hope that helps.