java - how to parse JSONArray in android

Question

I want to read this JSON lines but because it start with JSONArray i'm a little confused

 "abridged_cast": [
            {
                "name": "Jeff Bridges",
                "id": "162655890",
                "characters": [
                    "Jack Prescott"
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "Charles Grodin",
                "id": "162662571",
                "characters": [
                    "Fred Wilson"
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "Jessica Lange",
                "id": "162653068",
                "characters": [
                    "Dwan"
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "John Randolph",
                "id": "162691889",
                "characters": [
                    "Capt. Ross"
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "Rene Auberjonois",
                "id": "162718328",
                "characters": [
                    "Bagley"
                ]
            }
        ],

i just need to use the "name" and save all as one String. (the string value will be : Jeff Bridges,Charles Grodin,Jessica Lange,John Randolph,Rene Auberjonois).

this is my code:

try {
        //JSON is the JSON code above

        JSONObject jsonResponse = new JSONObject(JSON);
        JSONArray movies = jsonResponse.getJSONArray("characters");
        String hey = movies.toString();


    } catch (JSONException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

Answer 1

If you're after the 'name', why does your code snippet look like an attempt to get the 'characters'?

Anyways, this is no different from any other list- or array-like operation: you just need to iterate over the dataset and grab the information you're interested in. Retrieving all the names should look somewhat like this:

List<String> allNames = new ArrayList<String>();

JSONArray cast = jsonResponse.getJSONArray("abridged_cast");
for (int i=0; i<cast.length(); i++) {
    JSONObject actor = cast.getJSONObject(i);
    String name = actor.getString("name");
    allNames.add(name);
}

(typed straight into the browser, so not tested).