Jackson JSON - Using @JsonIgnore and @JsonIgnoreProperties to ignore properties

Following example shows how to use @JsonIgnore and @JsonIgnoreProperties annotations to ignore properties. @JsonIgnore Example @JsonIgnore can be used on fields or getters or setters to ignore individual properties. public class Employee { private String name; private String dept; @JsonIgnore private String address; ............. } public class ExampleMain { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException { Employee employee = new Employee(); employee.setName("Trish"); employee.setDept("Admin"); employee.setAddress("421 Moon Hill"); //convert to json String jsonString = toJson(employee); System.out.println(jsonString); //convert to object; Employee e = toEmployee(jsonString); System.out.println(e); //address here will be ignore too String s = "{\"name\":\"Trish\",\"dept\":\"Admin\", \"address\":\"xyz Street\"}"; System.out.println("JSON input: "+s); Employee e2 = toEmployee(s); System.out.println(e2); } private static Employee toEmployee(String jsonData) throws IOException { ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper(); return om.readValue(jsonData, Employee.class); } private static String toJson(Employee employee) throws IOException { ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper(); return om.writeValueAsString(employee); } } {"name":"Trish","dept":"Admin"} Employee{name='Trish', dept='Admin', address='null'} JSON input: {"name":"Trish","dept":"Admin", "address":"xyz Street"} Employee{name='Trish', dept='Admin', address='null'}   @JsonIgnoreProperties Example This annotation can be used to ignore multiple properties with one declaration: @JsonIgnoreProperties({"dept", "address"}) public class Employee2 { private String name; private String dept; private String address; ............. } public class ExampleMain2 { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException { Employee2 employee = new Employee2(); employee.setName("Trish"); employee.setDept("Admin"); employee.setAddress("421 Moon Hill"); //convert to json String jsonString = toJson(employee); System.out.println(jsonString); //convert to object; Employee2 e = toEmployee(jsonString); System.out.println(e); //address/dept here will be ignored even they are in the source JSON String s = "{\"name\":\"Trish\",\"dept\":\"Admin\", \"address\":\"xyz Street\"}"; System.out.println("JSON input: "+s); Employee2 e2 = toEmployee(s); System.out.println(e2); } private static Employee2 toEmployee(String jsonData) throws IOException { ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper(); return om.readValue(jsonData, Employee2.class); } private static String toJson(Employee2 employee) throws IOException { ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper(); return om.writeValueAsString(employee); } } {"name":"Trish"} Employee{name='Trish', dept='null', address='null'} JSON input: {"name":"Trish","dept":"Admin", "address":"xyz Street"} Employee{name='Trish', dept='null', address='null'} Ignoring Unknown Properties @JsonIgnoreProperties#ignoreUnknown can be used to ignore a JSON property if is not defined in the POJO: @JsonIgnoreProperties(ignoreUnknown = true) public class Employee3 { private String name; private String dept; private String address; ............. } public class ExampleMain3 { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException { String jsonString = "{\"name\":\"Trish\",\"phone\":\"111-111-1111\"}"; System.out.println(jsonString); //convert to object; Employee3 e = toEmployee(jsonString); System.out.println(e); } private static Employee3 toEmployee(String jsonData) throws IOException { ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper(); return om.readValue(jsonData, Employee3.class); } } {"name":"Trish","phone":"111-111-1111"} Employee{name='Trish', dept='null', address='null'} Without ignoreUnknown = true, we will have following exception: Exception in thread "main" com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.UnrecognizedPropertyException: Unrecognized field "phone" (class com.logicbig.example.Employee3), not marked as ignorable (3 known properties: "name", "address", "dept"]) at [Source: (String)"{"name":"Trish","phone":"111-111-1111"}"; line: 1, column: 26] (through reference chain: com.logicbig.example.Employee3["phone"]) at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.UnrecognizedPropertyException.from(UnrecognizedPropertyException.java:60) at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext.handleUnknownProperty(DeserializationContext.java:822) at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.StdDeserializer.handleUnknownProperty(StdDeserializer.java:1152) at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializerBase.handleUnknownProperty(BeanDeserializerBase.java:1567) at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializerBase.handleUnknownVanilla(BeanDeserializerBase.java:1545) at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.vanillaDeserialize(BeanDeserializer.java:293) at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserialize(BeanDeserializer.java:151) at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper._readMapAndClose(ObjectMapper.java:4001) at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper.readValue(ObjectMapper.java:2992) at com.logicbig.example.ExampleMain3.toEmployee(ExampleMain3.java:18) at com.logicbig.example.ExampleMain3.main(ExampleMain3.java:12)