How to deserialize a JSON object to a binary tree by using Jackson - jackson

Question

From the previous question How to deserialize a JSON array to a singly linked list , I learned how to deserialize a JSON array to a singly linked list.
Now I want to deserialize a JSON object to a binary tree in Java.
The definition of the binary tree node is as the following:
public class BinaryTreeNode<E> {
public E value;
public BinaryTreeNode left;
public BinaryTreeNode right;
public BinaryTreeNode(final E value) {
this.value = value;
}
}
How to deserialize a JSON string such as:
{
"value": 2,
"left": {
"value": 1,
"left": null,
"right": null
},
"right": {
"value": 10,
"left": {
"value": 5,
"left": null,
"right": null
},
"right": null
}
}
to a binary tree?
2
/ \
1 10
/
5
Here is the unit test code:
#Test public void binaryTreeNodeTest() throws IOException {
ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
final ArrayList<Integer> intArray = objectMapper.readValue("[1,2,3,4,5]",
new TypeReference<ArrayList<Integer>>() {});
System.out.println(intArray);
/* How to achieve this?
2
/ \
1 10
/
5
{
"value": 2,
"left": {
"value": 1,
"left": null,
"right": null
},
"right": {
"value": 10,
"left": {
"value": 5,
"left": null,
"right": null
},
"right": null
}
}
*/
final String jsonStr = "{\n"
+ " \"value\": 2,\n"
+ " \"left\": {\n"
+ " \"value\": 1,\n"
+ " \"left\": null,\n"
+ " \"right\": null\n"
+ " },\n" + " \"right\": {\n"
+ " \"value\": 10,\n"
+ " \"left\": {\n"
+ " \"value\": 5,\n"
+ " \"left\": null,\n"
+ " \"right\": null\n"
+ " },\n"
+ " \"right\": null\n"
+ " }\n"
+ "}";
System.out.println(jsonStr);
final BinaryTreeNode<Integer> intTree = objectMapper.readValue(jsonStr,
new TypeReference<BinaryTreeNode<Integer>>() {});
System.out.println(intTree);
}
In other word, I want the BinaryTreeNode to be a first-class citizen the same as ArrayList, which can be used in all kinds of combinations, such as HashSet<BinaryTreeNode<Integer>>, BinaryTreeNode<HashMap<String, Integer>>, etc.

Answer 1

The solution is quite simple, since JSON can express tree naturally, Jackson can deal with recursive tree directly. Just annotate a constructor with JsonCreator:
public static class BinaryTreeNode<E>
{
public E value;
public BinaryTreeNode left;
public BinaryTreeNode right;
#JsonCreator
public BinaryTreeNode(#JsonProperty("value") final E value) {
this.value = value;
}
}
Let's write a unite test to try it:
package me.soulmachine.customized_collection;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonCreator;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonProperty;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.type.TypeReference;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import org.junit.Test;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
public class BinaryTreeNodeTest {
public static class BinaryTreeNode<E> {
public E value;
public BinaryTreeNode left;
public BinaryTreeNode right;
#JsonCreator
public BinaryTreeNode(#JsonProperty("value") final E value) {
this.value = value;
}
ArrayList<E> preOrder() {
final ArrayList<E> result = new ArrayList<>();
if (this.value == null) {
return result;
}
preOrder(this, result);
return result;
}
private static <E> void preOrder(BinaryTreeNode<E> root, ArrayList<E> result) {
if (root == null)
return;
result.add(root.value);
if (root.left != null)
preOrder(root.left, result);
if (root.right != null)
preOrder(root.right, result);
}
}
#Test public void binaryTreeNodeTest() throws IOException {
ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
/*
2
/ \
1 10
/
5
*/
final String jsonStr = "{\n"
+ " \"value\": 2,\n"
+ " \"left\": {\n"
+ " \"value\": 1,\n"
+ " \"left\": null,\n"
+ " \"right\": null\n"
+ " },\n" + " \"right\": {\n"
+ " \"value\": 10,\n"
+ " \"left\": {\n"
+ " \"value\": 5,\n"
+ " \"left\": null,\n"
+ " \"right\": null\n"
+ " },\n"
+ " \"right\": null\n"
+ " }\n"
+ "}";
System.out.println(jsonStr);
final BinaryTreeNode<Integer> intTree = objectMapper.readValue(jsonStr,
new TypeReference<BinaryTreeNode<Integer>>() {});
final List<Integer> listExpected = Arrays.asList(2, 1, 10, 5);
assertEquals(listExpected, intTree.preOrder());
}
}
A compact serialization format
Well, there is a little problem here, the JSON string above is very verbose. Let's use another kind of serialization format, i.e., serialize a binary tree in level order traversal. For example, the binary tree above can be serialized as the following JSON string:
[2,1,10,null,null,5]
Now how to deserialize this JSON string to a binary tree?
The idea is very similar to my previous article, Deserialize a JSON Array to a Singly Linked List. Just make the BinaryTreeNode implement java.util.list, pretend that it's a list, write our own deserialization code so that Jackson can treat a binary tree as a list.
The complete code of BinaryTreeNode is as the following:
package me.soulmachine.customized_collection;
import java.util.*;
public class BinaryTreeNode<E> extends AbstractSequentialList<E>
implements Cloneable, java.io.Serializable {
public E value;
public BinaryTreeNode<E> left;
public BinaryTreeNode<E> right;
/** has a left child, but it's a null node. */
private transient boolean leftIsNull;
/** has a right child, but it's a null node. */
private transient boolean rightIsNull;
/**
* Constructs an empty binary tree.
*/
public BinaryTreeNode() {
value = null;
left = null;
right = null;
}
/**
* Constructs an binary tree with one element.
*/
public BinaryTreeNode(final E value) {
if (value == null) throw new IllegalArgumentException("null value");
this.value = value;
left = null;
right = null;
}
/**
* Constructs a binary tree containing the elements of the specified
* collection, in the order they are returned by the collection's
* iterator.
*
* #param c the collection whose elements are to be placed into this binary tree
* #throws NullPointerException if the specified collection is null
*/
public BinaryTreeNode(Collection<? extends E> c) {
this();
addAll(c);
}
/**
* #inheritDoc
*
* <p>Note: null in the middle counts, so that each father in the binary tree has a
* one-to-one mapping with the JSON array.</p>
*/
public int size() {
if (value == null) return 0;
Queue<BinaryTreeNode<E>> queue = new LinkedList<>();
queue.add(this);
int count = 0;
while (!queue.isEmpty()) {
final BinaryTreeNode<E> node = queue.remove();
++count;
if (node.left != null) {
queue.add(node.left);
} else {
if (node.leftIsNull) ++count;
}
if (node.right != null) {
queue.add(node.right);
} else {
if (node.rightIsNull) ++count;
}
}
return count;
}
/**
* Tells if the argument is the index of a valid position for an
* iterator or an add operation.
*/
private boolean isPositionIndex(int index) {
return index >= 0 && index <= size();
}
/**
* Constructs an IndexOutOfBoundsException detail message.
* Of the many possible refactorings of the error handling code,
* this "outlining" performs best with both server and client VMs.
*/
private String outOfBoundsMsg(int index) {
return "Index: "+index+", Size: "+ size();
}
private void checkPositionIndex(int index) {
if (!isPositionIndex(index))
throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException(outOfBoundsMsg(index));
}
private class NodeAndFather {
private BinaryTreeNode<E> node;
private BinaryTreeNode<E> father;
private boolean isRight; // the father is the right child of the father
private NodeAndFather(BinaryTreeNode<E> node, BinaryTreeNode<E> father, boolean isRight) {
this.node = node;
this.father = father;
this.isRight = isRight;
}
}
/**
* Returns the (may be null) Node at the specified element index.
*/
NodeAndFather node(int index) {
checkPositionIndex(index);
if (value == null) return null;
Queue<NodeAndFather> queue = new LinkedList<>();
queue.add(new NodeAndFather(this, null, false));
for (int i = 0; !queue.isEmpty(); ++i) {
final NodeAndFather nodeAndFather = queue.remove();
if ( i == index) {
return nodeAndFather;
}
if (nodeAndFather.node != null) {
queue.add(new NodeAndFather(nodeAndFather.node.left, nodeAndFather.node, false));
queue.add(new NodeAndFather(nodeAndFather.node.right, nodeAndFather.node, true));
}
}
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Illegal index: " + index);
}
/**
* #inheritDoc
*/
public ListIterator<E> listIterator(int index) {
checkPositionIndex(index);
return new ListItr(index);
}
private class ListItr implements ListIterator<E> {
private NodeAndFather next;
private int nextIndex;
private int expectedModCount = modCount;
ListItr(int index) {
assert isPositionIndex(index);
next = node(index);
nextIndex = index;
}
public boolean hasNext() {
final BinaryTreeNode<E> cur = next.node;
return cur != null || (next.father.leftIsNull || next.father.rightIsNull);
}
//O(n)
public E next() {
checkForComodification();
if (!hasNext())
throw new NoSuchElementException();
final E result = next.node != null ? next.node.value : null;
next = node(nextIndex+1);
nextIndex++;
return result;
}
public boolean hasPrevious() {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
}
public E previous() {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
}
public int nextIndex() {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
}
public int previousIndex() {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
}
public void remove() {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
}
public void set(E e) {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
}
public void add(E e) { // always append at the tail
checkForComodification();
if (next == null) { // empty list
BinaryTreeNode.this.value = e;
BinaryTreeNode.this.left = null;
BinaryTreeNode.this.right = null;
} else {
final BinaryTreeNode<E> newNode = e != null ? new BinaryTreeNode<>(e) : null;
if (next.father == null) { // root
BinaryTreeNode<E> cur = next.node;
cur.left = newNode;
assert cur.right == null;
throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
} else {
if (next.isRight) {
if (next.father.right != null) throw new IllegalStateException();
next.father.right = newNode;
if (newNode == null) {
next.father.rightIsNull = true;
}
} else {
if (next.father.left != null) throw new IllegalStateException();
next.father.left = newNode;
if (newNode == null) {
next.father.leftIsNull = true;
}
}
}
}
modCount++;
expectedModCount++;
}
final void checkForComodification() {
if (modCount != expectedModCount)
throw new ConcurrentModificationException();
}
}
// the following functions are just for unit tests.
ArrayList<E> preOrder() {
final ArrayList<E> result = new ArrayList<>();
if (this.value == null) {
return result;
}
preOrder(this, result);
return result;
}
private static <E> void preOrder(BinaryTreeNode<E> root, ArrayList<E> result) {
if (root == null)
return;
result.add(root.value);
if (root.left != null)
preOrder(root.left, result);
if (root.right != null)
preOrder(root.right, result);
}
ArrayList<E> inOrder() {
final ArrayList<E> result = new ArrayList<>();
if (this.value == null) {
return result;
}
inOrder(this, result);
return result;
}
private static <E> void inOrder(BinaryTreeNode<E> root, ArrayList<E> result) {
if (root == null)
return;
if (root.left != null)
inOrder(root.left, result);
result.add(root.value);
if (root.right != null)
inOrder(root.right, result);
}
ArrayList<E> postOrder() {
final ArrayList<E> result = new ArrayList<>();
if (this.value == null) {
return result;
}
postOrder(this, result);
return result;
}
private static <E> void postOrder(BinaryTreeNode<E> root, ArrayList<E> result) {
if (root == null)
return;
if (root.left != null)
postOrder(root.left, result);
if (root.right != null)
postOrder(root.right, result);
result.add(root.value);
}
ArrayList<E> levelOrder() {
final ArrayList<E> result = new ArrayList<>();
if (this.value == null) {
return result;
}
Queue<BinaryTreeNode<E>> queue = new LinkedList<>();
queue.add(this);
while (!queue.isEmpty()) {
final BinaryTreeNode<E> node = queue.remove();
result.add(node.value);
if (node.left != null)
queue.add(node.left);
if (node.right != null)
queue.add(node.right);
}
return result;
}
}
Then comes with the unit tests:
java
package me.soulmachine.customized_collection;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.type.TypeReference;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import org.junit.Test;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
public class BinaryTreeNodeTest
{
#Test public void deserializeTest() throws IOException {
ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
final List<Integer> intList = Arrays.asList(2,1,10,null,null,5);
/*
2
/ \
1 10
/
5
*/
// TODO: the time complexity is O(n^2)
final BinaryTreeNode<Integer> intTree = objectMapper.readValue("[2,1,10,null,null,5]",
new TypeReference<BinaryTreeNode<Integer>>() {});
assertEquals(intList, intTree);
assertEquals(Arrays.asList(2, 1, 10, 5), intTree.levelOrder());
assertEquals(Arrays.asList(2, 1, 10, 5), intTree.preOrder());
assertEquals(Arrays.asList(1, 2, 5, 10), intTree.inOrder());
assertEquals(Arrays.asList(1, 5, 10, 2), intTree.postOrder());
}
}
This article is inspired by Tatu Saloranta from this post, special thanks to him!
Here is my original blog, Deserialize a JSON String to a Binary Tree