Simplest and correct code is:

public static String[] toStringArray(JSONArray array) {
    if(array==null)
        return new String[0];
    
    String[] arr=new String[array.length()];
    for(int i=0; i<arr.length; i++) {
        arr[i]=array.optString(i);
    }
    return arr;
}

Using List<String> is not a good idea, as you know the length of the array. Observe that it uses arr.length in for condition to avoid calling a method, i.e. array.length(), on each loop.

If you don't already have a JSONArray object, call

JSONArray jsonArray = new JSONArray(jsonArrayString);

Then simply loop through that, building your own array. This code assumes it's an array of strings, it shouldn't be hard to modify to suit your particular array structure.

List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
for (int i=0; i<jsonArray.length(); i++) {
    list.add( jsonArray.getString(i) );
}

It works for me.

JSONObject obj = new JSONObject(result.toString());
JSONArray arr = obj.getJSONArray("value");

Even shorter and with json-functions:

JSONObject songsObject = json.getJSONObject("songs");
JSONArray songsArray = songsObject.toJSONArray(songsObject.names());

You can prefer quick-json parser to meet your requirement...

quick-json parser is very straight forward, flexible, very fast and customizable. Try this out

[quick-json parser] (https://code.google.com/p/quick-json/) - quick-json features -

• Compliant with JSON specification (RFC4627)

• High-Performance JSON parser

• Supports Flexible/Configurable parsing approach

• Configurable validation of key/value pairs of any JSON Heirarchy

• Easy to use # Very Less foot print

• Raises developer friendly and easy to trace exceptions

• Pluggable Custom Validation support - Keys/Values can be validated by configuring custom validators as and when encountered

• Validating and Non-Validating parser support

• Support for two types of configuration (JSON/XML) for using quick-json validating parser

• Require JDK 1.5 # No dependency on external libraries

• Support for Json Generation through object serialization

• Support for collection type selection during parsing process

For e.g.

JsonParserFactory factory=JsonParserFactory.getInstance();
JSONParser parser=factory.newJsonParser();
Map jsonMap=parser.parseJson(jsonString);

ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
list.add("blah");
list.add("bleh");
JSONArray jsArray = new JSONArray(list);

This is only an example using a string arraylist