count members with jsonpath?

Question

Is it possible to count the number of members using JsonPath?

Using spring mvc test I'm testing a controller that generates

{"foo": "oof", "bar": "rab"}

with

standaloneSetup(new FooController(fooService)).build()
            .perform(get("/something").accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)).andExpect(status().isOk())
            .andExpect(jsonPath("$.foo").value("oof"))
            .andExpect(jsonPath("$.bar").value("rab"));

I'd like to make sure that no other members are present in the generated json. Hopefully by counting them using jsonPath. Is it possible? Alternate solutions are welcome too.

Answer 1

To test size of array: jsonPath("$", hasSize(4))

To count members of object: jsonPath("$.*", hasSize(4))

---

I.e. to test that API returns an array of 4 items:

accepted value: [1,2,3,4]

mockMvc.perform(get(API_URL))
       .andExpect(jsonPath("$", hasSize(4)));

---

to test that API returns an object containing 2 members:

accepted value: {"foo": "oof", "bar": "rab"}

mockMvc.perform(get(API_URL))
       .andExpect(jsonPath("$.*", hasSize(2)));

---

I'm using Hamcrest version 1.3 and Spring Test 3.2.5.RELEASE

hasSize(int) javadoc

Note: You need to include hamcrest-library dependency and import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.*; for hasSize() to work.

Answer 2

You can also use the methods inside the jsonpath, so instead of

mockMvc.perform(get(API_URL))
   .andExpect(jsonPath("$.*", hasSize(2)));

you can do

mockMvc.perform(get(API_URL))
   .andExpect(jsonPath("$.length()", is(2)));

Answer 3

We can use JsonPath functions like size() or length(), like this:

@Test
public void givenJson_whenGetLengthWithJsonPath_thenGetLength() {
    String jsonString = "{'username':'jhon.user','email':'jhon@company.com','age':'28'}";

    int length = JsonPath
        .parse(jsonString)
        .read("$.length()");

    assertThat(length).isEqualTo(3);
}

Or simply parsing to net.minidev.json.JSONObject and get the size:

@Test
public void givenJson_whenParseObject_thenGetSize() {
    String jsonString = "{'username':'jhon.user','email':'jhon@company.com','age':'28'}";

    JSONObject jsonObject = (JSONObject) JSONValue.parse(jsonString);

    assertThat(jsonObject)
        .size()
        .isEqualTo(3);
}

Indeed, the second approach looks to perform better than the first one. I made a JMH performance test and I get the following results:

| Benchmark                                       | Mode  | Cnt | Score       | Error        | Units |
|-------------------------------------------------|-------|-----|-------------|--------------|-------|
| JsonPathBenchmark.benchmarkJSONObjectParse      | thrpt | 5   | 3241471.044 | ±1718855.506 | ops/s |
| JsonPathBenchmark.benchmarkJsonPathObjectLength | thrpt | 5   | 1680492.243 | ±132492.697  | ops/s |

The example code can be found here.

Answer 4

Been dealing with this myself today. It doesn't seem like this is implemented in the available assertions. However, there is a method to pass in an org.hamcrest.Matcher object. With that you can do something like the following:

final int count = 4; // expected count

jsonPath("$").value(new BaseMatcher() {
    @Override
    public boolean matches(Object obj) {
        return obj instanceof JSONObject && ((JSONObject) obj).size() == count;
    }

    @Override
    public void describeTo(Description description) {
        // nothing for now
    }
})

Answer 5

if you don't have com.jayway.jsonassert.JsonAssert on your classpath (which was the case with me), testing in the following way may be a possible workaround:

assertEquals(expectedLength, ((net.minidev.json.JSONArray)parsedContent.read("$")).size());

[note: i assumed that the content of the json is always an array]