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);

The org.json based classes included in Android don't have any features related to converting Java POJOs to/from JSON.

If you have a list of some class (List<GroupItem>) and you absolutely need to convert that to a org.json.JSONArray you have two choices:

A) Use Gson or Jackson to convert to JSON, then parse that JSON into a JSONArray:

List<GroupItem> list = ...
String json = new Gson().toJson(list);
JSONArray array = new JSONArray(json);

B) Write code to create the JSONArray and the JSONObjects it will contain from your Java objects:

JSONArray array = new JSONArray();
for (GroupItem gi : list)
{
    JSONObject obj = new JSONObject();
    obj.put("fieldName", gi.fieldName);
    obj.put("fieldName2", gi.fieldName2);
    array.put(obj);
}

JsonArray is inherently a List

JsonObject is inherently a Map

Since Java doesn't support functions having multiple return types(unless it is a generic function with return type accepted as argument - example), the most simple way to perform what you need is the following:

if (object instanceof Map){
    JSONObject jsonObject = new JSONObject();
    jsonObject.putAll((Map)object);
    ...
    ...
}
else if (object instanceof List){
    JSONArray jsonArray = new JSONArray();
    jsonArray.addAll((List)object);
    ...
    ...
}

An alternative to this, if you want it as a function, is to convert the given JsonObject into a JsonArray and write your code to operate on that JsonArray, without having to worry about the type. The following function serves the said purpose.

public JSONArray getJsonObjectOrJsonArray(Object object){
    JSONArray jsonArray = new JSONArray();
    if (object instanceof Map){
        JSONObject jsonObject = new JSONObject();
        jsonObject.putAll((Map)object);
        jsonArray.add(jsonObject);
    }
    else if (object instanceof List){
        jsonArray.addAll((List)object);
    }
    return jsonArray;
}

I suppose you're getting this JSON from a server or a file, and you want to create a JSONArray object out of it.

String strJSON = ""; // your string goes here
JSONArray jArray = (JSONArray) new JSONTokener(strJSON).nextValue();
// once you get the array, you may check items like
JSONOBject jObject = jArray.getJSONObject(0);

Hope this helps :)