JsonParseException while parsing double quotes in Java string using object mapper

I have an issue while trying to parse a string value using object mapper.

Below is my code,

@Data
@NoArgsConstructor
@AllArgsConstructor    
public class Payload {
    private String id;
    private String message;
}

Then my main class

import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;

public class MyClass {
  public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception {
    
    String payloadText = "{\"id\":\"1\",\"message\":\"Message \"Yes\"\"}";
    ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
    
    Payload p = mapper.readValue(payloadText, Payload.class);
    System.out.println(p);
  }
}

My JSON string contains a word with double quotes "". Looks like because of the same, when I am trying to parse the JSON using ObjectMapper readValue method, it gives me below exception,

    Exception in thread "main" com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParseException: Unexpected character ('Y' (code 89)): was expecting comma to separate Object entries
 at [Source: REDACTED (`StreamReadFeature.INCLUDE_SOURCE_IN_LOCATION` disabled); line: 1, column: 31]
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser._constructReadException(JsonParser.java:2660)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.core.base.ParserMinimalBase._reportUnexpectedChar(ParserMinimalBase.java:741)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.core.json.ReaderBasedJsonParser._skipComma(ReaderBasedJsonParser.java:2429)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.core.json.ReaderBasedJsonParser.nextFieldName(ReaderBasedJsonParser.java:924)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.vanillaDeserialize(BeanDeserializer.java:317)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserialize(BeanDeserializer.java:177)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.DefaultDeserializationContext.readRootValue(DefaultDeserializationContext.java:342)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper._readMapAndClose(ObjectMapper.java:4917)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper.readValue(ObjectMapper.java:3860)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper.readValue(ObjectMapper.java:3828)
    at MyClass.main(MyClass.java:9)

I have tried using escape character methods from StringEscapeUtils class, but no use. I also tried using JsonParser feature ALLOW BACKSLASH ESCAPING ANY CHARACTER, still no luck.

Can anyone guide as to how can make the object mapper ignore the backslashes used for skipping double quotes.

Any help or pointers are appreciated.

Solution

As you are already aware, Java requires that a double-quote character inside a string constant is escaped with a backslash.

However, JSON also requires that a double-quote character inside a string value is escaped with a backslash. You did not do that. In fact, your string has no backslash characters in it. (The sequence \" is a single double-quote character; there is no actual backslash character in the string data.)

By far the best way to eliminate this confusion is by using a multi-line string:

String payloadText = """
    {"id":"1","message":"Message \\"Yes\\""}
""";

But if you really want to do it all on one line, it would need to be this:

String payloadText = "{\"id\":\"1\",\"message\":\"Message \\\"Yes\\\"\"}";

Note: I have added the closing brace (}) to your JSON content. Without it, you would still get a JsonParseException for a different reason.