JsonPath read returns path instead of value

Question

I have a JsonNode with the structure:

{
'field1': 'value1'
'field2': 'value2'
}

I want to retrieve 'value1' by specifying a json path: "$.field1". However, instead of getting 'value1', I'm getting the path itself. See the following illustration:

JsonNode node = ...
String path = "$.field1";
Configuration conf = Configuration.defaultConfiguration().addOptions(Option.DEFAULT_PATH_LEAF_TO_NULL);

ReadContext context = JsonPath.using(conf).parse(jsonNode.toString());
Object value = context.read(path);

System.out.println(value);

// Output: ["$['field1']"]

Why am I getting ["$['field1']"] ? It looks like it just normalized the path..

Answer 1

I'm not sure that the JSON that you gave is correct as it contains single quotes for key and value.

Your JSON is not a valid JSON. JSON only allows double quotes for key and value.

Valid JSON should be like this:

{
  "field1": "value1",
  "field2": "value2"
}

Your code I have tested by modifying a little bit:

public class Example {
    public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception {
        String path = "$.field1";
        Configuration conf = Configuration.defaultConfiguration().addOptions(Option.DEFAULT_PATH_LEAF_TO_NULL);
        ReadContext context = JsonPath.using(conf).parse("{\"field1\": \"value1\"," + "\"field2\": \"value2\"}");
        Object value = context.read(path);
        System.out.println(value);
    }
}

Output:

value1

Please check the string value that is coming from JsonNode.toString() by debugging.

Your jsonNode.toString() should return something this:

"{\"field1\": \"value1\"," + "\"field2\": \"value2\"}"

I'm 100% sure that you are not getting this string from JsonNode when passed to parse method.