Can I declare a variable with square brackets?

Question

I am writing a POST API where I need to form a payload as,

{
"questions":{
  "preferredAnswer":{
     answer[0]:"my first answer",
     answer[1]:"second answer"
  }
}

This needs to be mapped as a java object. My questions is, Is there a way I can map this json to the below class? or Can I declare answers variable as String answer[0]; String answer[1]; (This syntax is not allowed)

public Class Questions {
  PreferredAnswer preferredAnswer;
}
public Class PreferredAnswer {
   String[] answers;
}

How could I map the json?

Answer 1

You can't declare variable with square brackets, however you can have your JSON property with brackets and map it using @JsonProperty annotation as below

public Class PreferredAnswer {
   @JsonProperty("answer[0]") 
   private String answer0;

   @JsonProperty("answer[1]") 
   private String answer1;
}

Note: You need to provide setter/getter for these private properties.

This will map your JSON into java object and vice versa.