Google's popular GSON library has a method, namely getPath, maybe useful for your purpose:

String json = "...";
JsonReader reader = new JsonReader(new StringReader(json));
System.out.println(reader.getPath());

There definitely exists a way to query Json and get Json back using JsonPath. See example below:

 String jsonString = "{\"delivery_codes\": [{\"postal_code\": {\"district\": \"Ghaziabad\", \"pin\": 201001, \"pre_paid\": \"Y\", \"cash\": \"Y\", \"pickup\": \"Y\", \"repl\": \"N\", \"cod\": \"Y\", \"is_oda\": \"N\", \"sort_code\": \"GB\", \"state_code\": \"UP\"}}]}";
 String jsonExp = "$.delivery_codes";
 JsonNode pincodes = JsonPath.read(jsonExp, jsonString, JsonNode.class);
 System.out.println("pincodesJson : "+pincodes);

The output of the above will be inner Json.

[{"postal_code":{"district":"Ghaziabad","pin":201001,"pre_paid":"Y","cash":"Y","pickup":"Y","repl":"N","cod":"Y","is_oda":"N","sort_code":"GB","state_code":"UP"}}]

Now each individual name/value pairs can be parsed by iterating the List (JsonNode) we got above.

for(int i = 0; i< pincodes.size();i++){
    JsonNode node = pincodes.get(i);
    String pin = JsonPath.read("$.postal_code.pin", node, String.class);
    String district = JsonPath.read("$.postal_code.district", node, String.class);
    System.out.println("pin :: " + pin + " district :: " + district );
}

The output will be:

pin :: 201001 district :: Ghaziabad

Depending upon the Json you are trying to parse, you can decide whether to fetch a List or just a single String/Long value.

Hope it helps in solving your problem.

The Jayway JsonPath library has support for reading values using a JSON path.

For example:

String json = "...";

Map<String, Object> book = JsonPath.read(json, "$.store.book[0]");
System.out.println(book);  // prints {category=reference, author=Nigel Rees, title=Sayings of the Century, price=8.95}

Double price = JsonPath.read(json, "$.store.bicycle.price");
System.out.println(price);  // prints 19.95

You can also map JSON objects directly to classes, like in GSON or Jackson:

Book book = JsonPath.parse(json).read("$.store.book[0]", Book.class);
System.out.println(book);  // prints Book{category='reference', author='Nigel Rees', title='Sayings of the Century', price=8.95}

If you would like to specifically use GSON or Jackson to do the deserialization (the default is to use json-smart), you can also configure this:

Configuration.setDefaults(new Configuration.Defaults() {
    private final JsonProvider jsonProvider = new JacksonJsonProvider();
    private final MappingProvider mappingProvider = new JacksonMappingProvider();

    @Override
    public JsonProvider jsonProvider() {
        return jsonProvider;
    }

    @Override
    public MappingProvider mappingProvider() {
        return mappingProvider;
    }

    @Override
    public Set<Option> options() {
        return EnumSet.noneOf(Option.class);
    }
});

See the documentation for more details.

Although this is an old post, this came top in Google search. This is how I implemented using path;

extension method to JsonNode

    private static JsonNode GetNodeUsingPath(this JsonNode root, string path)
    {
        if (root == null || string.IsNullOrEmpty(path))
            return null;
        string[] parts = path.Split('.', StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
        JsonNode currentNode = root;

        // ignore 0th element as it is for root $
        for (int x = 1; x < parts.Length; x++)
        {
            if (currentNode == null)
                return null;
            currentNode = currentNode[parts[x]];
        }
        return currentNode;
    }

usage;

string path = "$.cakes.cheese";
JsonNode cheeseNode = rootNode.GetNodeUsingPath(path);