[FIXED] Java Refactoring: To remove a element from JSON (making the code less verbose)

Issue

The ask is to remove a JSON element from a JSON file: In this case its ID element. I am able to get the desired result. But the code looks very verbose can it be written in a better way without hindering the performance.

The path for the same is provided from the root node: /glossary/GlossDiv/GlossList/GlossEntry/ID

{
  "glossary": {
    "title": "example glossary",
    "GlossDiv": {
      "title": "S",
      "GlossList": {
        "GlossEntry": {
          "ID": "SGML",
          "SortAs": "SGML",
          "GlossTerm": "Standard Generalized Markup Language",
          "Acronym": "SGML",
          "Abbrev": "ISO 8879:1986",
          "GlossDef": {
            "para": "A meta-markup language, used to create markup languages such as DocBook.",
            "GlossSeeAlso": ["GML", "XML"]
          },
          "GlossSee": "markup"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The code to remove the element is: As one can observe it has two for loops and we are traversing to the parent of the element which needs to be removed and then removing the element. Is there a better way of writing the code?

public static JsonNode removeProperty(JsonNode node, List<String> removedField){
    JsonNode modifiedNode = node;

    for (String nodeToBeRemoved: removedField){
        String[] array = nodeToBeRemoved.split("/");
        for (int i =1;i<array.length-1;i++){
            String name=array[i];
            modifiedNode = modifiedNode.get(name);
        }
        ((ObjectNode)modifiedNode).remove(array[array.length-1]);
    }

    return node;
}

Solution

You could use JsonPointer for it, e.g.

String path = "/glossary/GlossDiv/GlossList/GlossEntry/ID";
String nodeToRemove = path.substring(path.lastIndexOf('/')+1);
JsonPointer jp = JsonPointer.compile(path.substring(0, path.lastIndexOf('/')));
ObjectNode parent = (ObjectNode)node.at(jp);
parent.remove(nodeToRemove);

The JsonPointer can also be cached.

Answered By - Kayaman
Answer Checked By - Candace Johnson (JavaFixing Volunteer)