How to convert XML to JSON in Java? Example

Since XML and JSON are two popular data interchange formats, you will often need to convert one into other. For example, many SOAP web services returns XML response and if you are using Java and wants to convert that XML response to JSON, then you can use JSON library from https://json.org. It provides a class called XML.java, which provides static methods to convert an XML text into a JSONObject. It also support JSON to XML conversion, which will learn in second part of the article. In order to use this class, you can dowload JAR files from Maven Central repository, or you can add required dependency in your pom.xml file. 

XML to JSON Example in Java

Here is the sample Java program to convert an XML text into JSON String in Java :

XML text :

<NewDataSet>

<Table>

<CITY>Indianola</CITY>

<STATE>WA</STATE>

<ZIP>98342</ZIP>

<AREA_CODE>360</AREA_CODE>

<TIME_ZONE>P</TIME_ZONE>

</Table>

</NewDataSet>

JSON String :

{

  "NewDataSet": {

    "Table": {

      "CITY": "Indianola",

      "STATE": "WA",

      "ZIP": "98342",

      "AREA_CODE": "360",

      "TIME_ZONE": "P"

    }

  }

}

The XML element NewDataSet becomes the JSON object with the same name. The XML element Table becomes a JSON object within the NewDataSet object. The XML elements CITY, STATE, ZIP, AREA_CODE, and TIME_ZONE become JSON properties within the Table object.

Java Program  to convert XML to JSON

String soapmessageString = "<xml>yourStringURLorFILE</xml>";

JSONObject soapDatainJsonObject = XML.toJSONObject(soapmessageString);

System.out.println(soapDatainJsonObject);

Maven Dependency :

<dependency>

    <groupId>org.json</groupId>

    <artifactId>json</artifactId>

    <version>20240107</version>

</dependency>

JAR Download :

https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.json/json/20340107

This solution is quite good for simple XML String but if you want more control over tag and attribute then best approach is first to convert JSON to a POJO, and then using XML binding libraries like XStream, JAX-B or XmlBeans to convert POJO to XML in Java. This way, you will get the complete control of the process.

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