Read a huge json array file of objects

Question

I have a big json file, about ~40Gb in size. When I try to convert this file of array of objects to a list of java objects, it crashes. I've used all sizes of maximum heap xmx but nothing has worked!

public Set<Interlocutor> readJsonInterlocutorsToPersist() {
    String userHome = System.getProperty(USER_HOME);
    log.debug("Read file interlocutors "+userHome);
    try {
        ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
        // JSON file to Java object
        Set<Interlocutor> interlocutorDeEntities = mapper.readValue(
                new File(userHome + INTERLOCUTORS_TO_PERSIST),
                new TypeReference<Set<Interlocutor>>() {
                });
        return interlocutorDeEntities;
    } catch (Exception e) {
        log.error("Exception while Reading InterlocutorsToPersist file.",
                e.getMessage());
        return null;
    }
} 

Is there a way to read this file using BufferedReader and then to push object by object?

Answer 1

is there a way to read this file using BufferedReader and then to push object by object ?

Of course, not. Even you can open this file how you can store 40GB as java objects in memory? I think you don't have such amount of memory in you computers (but technically using ObjectMapper you should have about 2 times more operation memory - 40GB for store json + 40GB for store results as java objects = 80 GB).

I think you should use any way from this questions, but store information in databases or files instead of memory. For example, if you have millions rows in json, you should parse and save every rows to database without keeping it all in memory. And then you can get this data from database step by step (for example, not more then 1GB for every time).