Parsing JSON data into model objects in Java
<p>I haven't worked with JSON data before, thus the question. 
I've the following JSON object in a file.</p>

<pre><code>{
    "courses": [
        { "id":998", "name":"Java Data Structures", "teacherId":"375" },
        { "id":"999", "name":"Java Generics", "teacherId":"376" }

    ],
    "teachers": [
        { "id":"375", "firstName":"Amiyo", "lastName":"Bagchi"},
        { "id":"376", "firstName":"Dennis", "lastName":"Ritchie"}    
    ]
}
</code></pre>

<p>Here are my model Objects.</p>

<pre><code>public class Course {

    private int _id;
    private String _name;
    private Teacher _teacher;
}

public class Teacher {
    private int _id;
    private String _firstName;
    private String _lastName;
}
</code></pre>

<p>My task is to read the JSON Objects and return a list of Model objects.</p>

<p>I've imported the simple.JSON family of jar and here's my code that reads the file.</p>

<pre><code>    FileReader reader = new FileReader(path);
    JSONParser parser = new JSONParser();
    Object obj = parser.parse(reader);

    JSONObject jsonObject = (JSONObject) obj;
</code></pre>

<p>My question is,</p>

<ol>
<li>How do I parse the JSON document into my Model objects?</li>
<li>If the input file is JSON but of a different format how do I throw exception/handle the anomaly?</li>
</ol>

<p>Any help appreciated.</p>