Java: Flat List<Map<String, Object>> to Hierarchical List<Map<String, Object>>

From your json sample it seems that you have List<Object> not List<Map<String, Object>>. So, just to give you an idea create 2 objects, let's say StudentDto and MarkDto.

Assuming that the input object is Student and StudentDto having List<MarkDto> as a member:

Map<String, List<Student>>  map = list.stream().collect(groupingBy(Student::studentId)); 
Map<String, StudentDto>  dtoMap = new HashMap<>();
for(Map.Entry<String, List<Student>> entry : map.entrySet()) {
    StudentDto stud = new StudentDto();
    //assign other studentDto properties
    
    for(Student std : entry.getValue()) {
        MarkDto mark = new MarkDto();
        mark.setSubjectId(std.getStudentid());
        mark.setMark(entry.getMark()));
        
        stud.add(mark);
    }
    
    dtoMap.put(String.valueOf(stud.getId()), stud);
}

return dtoMap.stream().collect(Collectors.toList()); // or return the map itself

You can split your algorithm on a few steps:

1. Extract subjectId, marks to a new academics Map.
2. Extract street, state to a new address Map.
3. Wrap academics Map with a List.
4. Merge data by studentId. When collision occurs, we need to merge academics List.

Steps 1. and 2. are the same except key names. We can extract it to a new class to avoid duplication of method references:

class ExtractKeysToMap implements Function<Map<String, Object>, Map<String, Object>> {

    private final List<String> keys;
    private final String newKey;

    ExtractKeysToMap(String newKey, List<String> keys) {
        this.newKey = Objects.requireNonNull(newKey);
        this.keys = Objects.requireNonNull(keys);
    }

    @Override
    public Map<String, Object> apply(Map<String, Object> map) {
        Map<String, Object> academics = new HashMap<>();
        keys.forEach(key -> {
            Object value = map.remove(key);
            if (value != null) academics.put(key, value);
        });
        map.put(newKey, academics);

        return map;
    }
}

Since we have first and second step implemented we can use it in below example:

import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.SerializationFeature;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.type.CollectionType;

import java.io.File;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Objects;
import java.util.function.Function;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;

public class JsonApp {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        File jsonFile = new File("./src/main/resources/test.json");

        ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
        mapper.enable(SerializationFeature.INDENT_OUTPUT);

        CollectionType jsonType = mapper.getTypeFactory().constructCollectionType(List.class, Map.class);
        List<Map<String, Object>> response = mapper.readValue(jsonFile, jsonType);

        final String academicsKey = "academics";
        Collection<Map<String, Object>> result = response
                .stream()
                .map(new ExtractKeysToMap(academicsKey, Arrays.asList("subjectId", "marks")))
                .map(new ExtractKeysToMap("address", Arrays.asList("street", "state")))
                .peek(map -> map.computeIfPresent(academicsKey, (k, v) -> new LinkedList<>(Collections.singletonList(v))))
                .collect(Collectors.toMap(
                        map -> map.get("studentId"),
                        map -> map,
                        (map0, map1) -> {
                            ((List<Object>) map0.get(academicsKey)).addAll((List<Object>) map1.get(academicsKey));

                            return map0;
                        }))
                .values();

        mapper.writeValue(System.out, result);
    }
}

Above code prints:

[ {
  "studentId" : 101,
  "name" : "John",
  "academics" : [ {
    "subjectId" : 2001,
    "marks" : 85
  }, {
    "subjectId" : 2002,
    "marks" : 75
  } ],
  "address" : {
    "street" : "Bakers Street",
    "state" : "LA"
  }
}, {
  "studentId" : 102,
  "name" : "Shae",
  "academics" : [ {
    "subjectId" : 3001,
    "marks" : 96
  } ],
  "address" : {
    "street" : "Howards",
    "state" : "NYC"
  }
} ]

It seems you need to group by student, while also changing the json structure.

Higher-level, you could do this (we'll see the details later):

Map<Integer, Map<String, Object>> grouped = flatDataList.stream()
    .collect(Collectors.toMap(
        s -> (Integer) s.get("studentId"),
        s -> transformToHierarchicalStudent(s),
        (oldS, newS) -> mergeHierarchicalStudents(oldS, newS)));

So, this creates a map of students with hierarchical format, grouped by studentId. We are delegating to two methods: one that creates a hierarchical student out from a flat student and another one that will merge two hierarchical students that have the same studentId.

The transformToHierarchicalStudent method would be as follows:

Map<String, Object> transformToHierarchicalStudent(Map<String, Object> flat) {

    Map<String, Object> student = new LinkedHashMap<>();

    student.put("studentId", flat.get("studentId"));
    student.put("name", flat.get("name"));

    Map<String, Object> address = new LinkedHashMap<>();
    address.put("street", flat.get("street"));
    address.put("state", flat.get("state"));
    student.put("address", address);

    List<Map<String, Object>> academics = new ArrayList<>();
    Map<String, Object> subject = new LinkedHashMap<>();
    subject.put("subjectId", flat.get("subjectId"));
    subject.put("marks", flat.get("marks"));
    academics.add(subject);
    student.put("academics", academics);

    return student;
}

And the mergeHierarchicalStudents method:

Map<String, Object> mergeHierarchicalStudents(
        Map<String, Object> oldSt, Map<String, Object> newSt) {

    // We only need to merge the subjects
    List<Map<String, Object>> oldAcademics = 
        (List<Map<String, Object>>) oldSt.get("academics");
    List<Map<String, Object>> newAcademics = 
        (List<Map<String, Object>>) newSt.get("academics");
    oldAcademcis.addAll(newAcademics);

    return oldS;
}

This assumes there are no duplicate subjects for the same student in the original flat list.

Finally, if you need a List of hierarchical students, just grab the map values:

List<Map<String, Object>> hierarchicalStudents = new ArrayList<>(grouped.values());