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Parsing Json with nested and variable dictionaries using Newtonsoft [duplicate]

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How to deserialize a JSON property that can be two different data types using Json.NET
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Closed 1 year ago.
I have a Json that looks as this:
{
"id": "1367",
"title": "ticket sample",
"custom_fields": {
"13084": {
"E0D4ED43": "South"
},
"13085": {
"F19DF0D6": "Atlanta"
},
"13089": {
"AF0EC62F": "Peter Johnson"
}
}
}
And to parse it, my class uses nested Dictionaries:
class incident
{
public string id { get; set; }
public string title { get; set; }
public Dictionary<int, Dictionary<string, string>> custom_fields { get; set; }
}
This works like a charme, until I've discovered that the custom fields are not always the same, for example I could receive:
{
"id": "1367",
"title": "ticket sample",
"custom_fields": {
"13084": {
"E0D4ED43": "South"
},
"13085": {
"F19DF0D6": "Atlanta"
},
"13086": "SAP",
"13088": {
"AE3ED01A": "Commercial"
}
}
}
If you look at the custom field "13086", it doesn't contains another object (it's just a string), so when I try to parse with the previous class it fails.
Those are examples of two different responses, but the keys received change a lot (that's why I used Dictionaries because I don't know how many and which will be received for each ticket)

Thank you all guys for your comments. Thanks to them I figured it out and found a solution that works for me.
Basically, I've used the "Dictionary<int, object>" proposed by #DilshodK and then I check for the type of the object. If the object is a JObject I re-deserialize with another Dictionary, if not I use the original value.
class incident_custom
{
public string id{ get; set; }
public string title { get; set; }
public Dictionary<int, object> custom_fields { get; set; }
}
incident_custom item = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<incident_custom>(responseBody);
Console.WriteLine(item.title);
foreach (var field in item.custom_fields)
{
if (field.Value.GetType() == typeof(Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JObject))
{
Dictionary<string, object> values = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, object>>(field.Value.ToString());
foreach (var value in values)
{
Console.WriteLine(field.Key + " - " + value.Value);
}
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine(field.Key + " - " + field.Value);
}
}

How to get element in JSON string

I have this JSON string called assignee:
{
"id": 15247055788906,
"gid": "15247055788906",
"name": "Bo Sundahl",
"resource_type": "user"
}
I want to get the "name" element and its value if it's not null. I have tried
var jobject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<JObject>(assignee);
And
var jo = JObject.Parse(assignee);
I tried looping through it but I just get null exception or empty output even though if I just print the assignee variable itself its filled with data.
My loop is like:
foreach (var result in jobject["name"])
{
Debug.WriteLine(result);
}

The simplest and best way is to deserialise to a C# class, for example:
public class Data
{
public long Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
//etc..
}
And deserialise like this
var data = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Data>(json);
var name = data.Name;

To get name use this
string name = jobject["name"];

Using ["name"] returns a JToken, it is null if the property doesn't exist
JToken token = jo["name"];
Debug.WriteLine(token?.ToString() ?? "<default value>");

If you don't know properties beforehand, you can loop through JObject properties and get name value pairs as following:
var jsonObject = JObject.Parse(str);
foreach (var item in jsonObject)
{
var name = item.Key;
JToken token = item.Value;
if (token is JValue)
{
var value = token.Value<string>();
}
}

Here is how it should work:
class Data
{
public long? Id { get; set; }
public string Gid { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Resource_Type { get; set; }
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string assignee = "{\"id\": 15247055788906, \"gid\": \"15247055788906\", \"name\": \"Bo Sundahl\", \"resource_type\": \"user\"}";
Data data = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Data>(assignee);
Console.WriteLine(data.Id);
Console.WriteLine(data.Gid);
Console.WriteLine(data.Name);
Console.WriteLine(data.Resource_Type);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}

convert json String to datatable?

While converting json string datatable facing an issue with , (comma) value in value field.
actualy my json string is [{"BNo":"345","GNo":"3453","FirstName":"fjai","LastName":"ljai","Address":"BARETI,CEVO, 13/2","Telephone":"051682247","BirthDate":"23-Jan-1981","Email":""}]
In that please look at the address scenario "Address":"BARETI,CEVO, 13/2"
It has the , in the values field. While converting the string to data base i got error. Here the code which i used convert json string to datatable
public DataTable JsonStringToDataTbl(string jsonString)
{
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
string[] jsonStringArray = Regex.Split(jsonString.Replace("[", "").Replace("]", ""), "},{");
List<string> ColumnsName = new List<string>();
foreach (string jSA in jsonStringArray)
{
string[] jsonStringData = Regex.Split(jSA.Replace("{", "").Replace("}", ""), ",");
foreach (string ColumnsNameData in jsonStringData)
{
try
{
int idx = ColumnsNameData.IndexOf(":");
string ColumnsNameString = ColumnsNameData.Substring(0, idx - 1).Replace("\"", "");
if (!ColumnsName.Contains(ColumnsNameString))
{
ColumnsName.Add(ColumnsNameString);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new Exception(string.Format("Error Parsing Column Name : {0}", ColumnsNameData));
}
}
break;
}
foreach (string AddColumnName in ColumnsName)
{
dt.Columns.Add(AddColumnName);
}
foreach (string jSA in jsonStringArray)
{
string[] RowData = Regex.Split(jSA.Replace("{", "").Replace("}", ""), ",");
DataRow nr = dt.NewRow();
foreach (string rowData in RowData)
{
try
{
int idx = rowData.IndexOf(":");
string RowColumns = rowData.Substring(0, idx - 1).Replace("\"", "");
string RowDataString = rowData.Substring(idx + 1).Replace("\"", "");
nr[RowColumns] = RowDataString;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
continue;
}
}
dt.Rows.Add(nr);
}
return dt;
}
The code must omit the , in the value field.. what can i do

If your keys are unknown at the time of being read, then you can use the JObject and the JProperty classes from JSON.Net to retrieve the keys and their values like this:
private void printKeysAndValues(string json)
{
var jobject = (JObject)((JArray)JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json))[0];
foreach (var jproperty in jobject.Properties())
{
Console.WriteLine("{0} - {1}", jproperty.Name, jproperty.Value);
}
}
Applied to two different JSON input string, retrieves the key/value pair:
var json1 = #"[{""BNo"":""345"",""GNo"":""3453"",""FirstName"":""fjai"",""LastName"":""ljai"",""Address"":""BARETI,CEVO, 13/2"",""Telephone"":""051682247"",""BirthDate"":""23-Jan-1981"",""Email"":""""}]";
var json2 = #"[{""Test"": ""A"", ""Text"":""some text"", ""Numbers"":""123""}]";
printKeysAndValues(json1);
Console.WriteLine("-------------------");
printKeysAndValues(json2);
And the output is:
BNo - 345
GNo - 3453
FirstName - fjai
LastName - ljai
Address - BARETI,CEVO, 13/2
Telephone - 051682247
BirthDate - 23-Jan-1981
Email -
-------------------
Test - A
Text - some text
Numbers - 123
One possibility would be to use the dynamic keyword. You can directly access the field like this:
var json = #"[{""BNo"":""345"",""GNo"":""3453"",""FirstName"":""fjai"",""LastName"":""ljai"",""Address"":""BARETI,CEVO, 13/2"",""Telephone"":""051682247"",""BirthDate"":""23-Jan-1981"",""Email"":""""}]";
dynamic data = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json);
// take the first element of the array
string address = data[0].Address;
Console.WriteLine(address.Replace(",", " "));
The output is:
BARETI CEVO 13/2
Note that String.Replace does not fail, if the symbol that should be replaced is not currently present, so "test".Replace(",", " "); will return test.
Another possibility is to use the in ASP.NET build in JSON converter (serializer/deserializer) - NewtonSoft JSON.Net. You can use it in order to regain the structured data. You need to create a class that represents the JSON structure:
public class Data
{
public string BNo { get; set; }
public string GNo { get; set; }
public string FirstName { get; set; }
public string LastName { get; set; }
public string Address { get; set; }
public string Telephones { get; set; }
public string BirthDates { get; set; }
public string Emails { get; set; }
}
Then the current JSON can be converted to an object of type Data using the JsonConvert.DeserializeObject method:
var json = #"[{""BNo"":""345"",""GNo"":""3453"",""FirstName"":""fjai"",""LastName"":""ljai"",""Address"":""BARETI,CEVO, 13/2"",""Telephone"":""051682247"",""BirthDate"":""23-Jan-1981"",""Email"":""""}]";
// remove square braces [ and ] at the start resp. end
var data = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Data>(json.Substring(1).Substring(0, json.Length - 2));
Now you can access the Address field and for example replace the , symbol:
Console.WriteLine(data.Address.Replace(",", " "));
The output is:
BARETI CEVO 13/2
I think your service returns also the wrong JSON format. JSON always starts with an object (when not in JavaScript), meaning that everything at the top level must be enclosed within curly braces { and }. If the service should return an array, then it should look like this {"results": [{"BNo":"...},{...}]}. If you can't change the service, then you can adapt / correct the returned string. Add a typed model for the array:
public class DataHolder
{
public Data[] data { get; set; }
}
and then create a correct JSON object holding an array:
var data = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DataHolder>("{\"data\":" + json + "}");
Console.WriteLine(data.data[0].Address.Replace(",", " "));
The output is again the same.

You can convert the JSON value to C# objects using Newtonsoft. This would be easy for you. Once you have converted to the below object, you can easily modify the Address property to remove the ',' value.
public class RootObject
{
public string BNo { get; set; }
public string GNo { get; set; }
public string FirstName { get; set; }
public string LastName { get; set; }
public string Address { get; set; }
public string Telephone { get; set; }
public string BirthDate { get; set; }
public string Email { get; set; }
}
Use the below line to convert to C# object
var jsonString = "The output of your webservice";
var obj = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(jsonString);
Now obj instance holds the C# object which is very easy to manipulate.

Can't parse JSON in C#?

I am trying to read a local .json file using StreamReader:
My code:
using (var jsonReader = new StreamReader(pathToMyJsonFile))
{
string json = jsonReader.ReadToEnd();
dynamic array = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json);
foreach (var item in array)
{
Console.WriteLine(item.fuzzy);
}
}
My json:
[
{
"fuzzy": "12345",
"name": "{jon-errand}",
"email": "person#gmail.com",
"lights": "red",
"friends": "Elizabeth",
"traits": {
"Hair": "brown",
"Eyes": "yellow"
}
}
]
I get the exception: Error reading JArray from JsonReader. Current JsonReader item is not an array: StartObject. I have tried looking at the SO answer posted here but I am sure my json is a real array. Without changing the above json, how can I read this json file in a useful way so I can pull out specific fields? Such as getting the email field as person#gmail.com?

var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<Item>>(File.ReadAllText(pathToMyJsonFile));
And your classes
public class Traits
{
public string Hair { get; set; }
public string Eyes { get; set; }
}
public class Item
{
public string fuzzy { get; set; }
public string name { get; set; }
public string email { get; set; }
public string lights { get; set; }
public string friends { get; set; }
public Traits traits { get; set; }
}
EDIT
dynamic array = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(File.ReadAllText(pathToMyJsonFile));
foreach (var item in array)
{
Console.WriteLine(item.name + " " + item.traits.Hair);
}

You can deserialize in JArray
JArray array = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<JArray>(json);
foreach (var item in array)
{
Console.WriteLine(item["fuzzy"]); // Prints 12345
}

JObject.Parse vs JsonConvert.DeserializeObject

What's the difference between JsonConvert.DeserializeObject and JObject.Parse? As far as I can tell, both take a string and are in the Json.NET library. What kind of situation would make one more convenient than the other, or is it mainly just preference?
For reference, here's an example of me using both to do exactly the same thing - parse a Json string and return a list of one of the Json attributes.
public ActionResult ReadJson()
{
string countiesJson = "{'Everything':[{'county_name':null,'description':null,'feat_class':'Civil','feature_id':'36865',"
+"'fips_class':'H1','fips_county_cd':'1','full_county_name':null,'link_title':null,'url':'http://www.alachuacounty.us/','name':'Alachua County'"+ ",'primary_latitude':'29.7','primary_longitude':'-82.33','state_abbreviation':'FL','state_name':'Florida'},"+
"{'county_name':null,'description':null,"+ "'feat_class':'Civil','feature_id':'36866','fips_class':'H1','fips_county_cd':'3','full_county_name':null,'link_title':null,'url':'http://www.bakercountyfl.org/','name':'Baker County','primary_latitude':'30.33','primary_longitude':'-82.29','state_abbreviation':'FL','state_name':'Florida'}]}";
//Can use either JSONParseObject or JSONParseDynamic here
List<string> counties = JSONParseObject(countiesJson);
JSONParseDynamic(countiesJson);
return View(counties);
}
public List<string> JSONParseObject(string jsonText)
{
JObject jResults = JObject.Parse(jsonText);
List<string> counties = new List<string>();
foreach (var county in jResults["Everything"])
{
counties.Add((string)county["name"]);
}
return counties;
}
public List<string> JSONParseDynamic(string jsonText)
{
dynamic jResults = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(jsonText);
List<string> counties = new List<string>();
foreach(var county in jResults.Everything)
{
counties.Add((string)county.name);
}
return counties;
}

The LINQ-to-JSON API (JObject, JToken, etc.) exists to allow working with JSON without needing to know its structure ahead of time. You can deserialize any arbitrary JSON using JToken.Parse, then examine and manipulate its contents using other JToken methods. LINQ-to-JSON also works well if you just need one or two values from the JSON (such as the name of a county).
JsonConvert.DeserializeObject, on the other hand, is mainly intended to be used when you DO know the structure of the JSON ahead of time and you want to deserialize into strongly typed classes. For example, here's how you would get the full set of county data from your JSON into a list of County objects.
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string countiesJson = "{'Everything':[{'county_name':null,'description':null,'feat_class':'Civil','feature_id':'36865',"
+"'fips_class':'H1','fips_county_cd':'1','full_county_name':null,'link_title':null,'url':'http://www.alachuacounty.us/','name':'Alachua County'"+ ",'primary_latitude':'29.7','primary_longitude':'-82.33','state_abbreviation':'FL','state_name':'Florida'},"+
"{'county_name':null,'description':null,"+ "'feat_class':'Civil','feature_id':'36866','fips_class':'H1','fips_county_cd':'3','full_county_name':null,'link_title':null,'url':'http://www.bakercountyfl.org/','name':'Baker County','primary_latitude':'30.33','primary_longitude':'-82.29','state_abbreviation':'FL','state_name':'Florida'}]}";
foreach (County c in JsonParseCounties(countiesJson))
{
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0}, {1} ({2},{3})", c.name,
c.state_abbreviation, c.primary_latitude, c.primary_longitude));
}
}
public static List<County> JsonParseCounties(string jsonText)
{
return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(jsonText).Counties;
}
}
public class RootObject
{
[JsonProperty("Everything")]
public List<County> Counties { get; set; }
}
public class County
{
public string county_name { get; set; }
public string description { get; set; }
public string feat_class { get; set; }
public string feature_id { get; set; }
public string fips_class { get; set; }
public string fips_county_cd { get; set; }
public string full_county_name { get; set; }
public string link_title { get; set; }
public string url { get; set; }
public string name { get; set; }
public string primary_latitude { get; set; }
public string primary_longitude { get; set; }
public string state_abbreviation { get; set; }
public string state_name { get; set; }
}
Notice that Json.Net uses the type argument given to the JsonConvert.DeserializeObject method to determine what type of object to create.
Of course, if you don't specify a type when you call DeserializeObject, or you use object or dynamic, then Json.Net has no choice but to deserialize into a JObject. (You can see for yourself that your dynamic variable actually holds a JObject by checking jResults.GetType().FullName.) So in that case, there's not much difference between JsonConvert.DeserializeObject and JToken.Parse; either will give you the same result.

JsonConvert.DeserializeObject has one advantage over JObject.Parse:
It is possible to use custom JsonSerializerSettings.
This can be very useful e.g. if you want to control how dates are deserialized.
By default dates are deserialized into DateTime objects.
This means that you may end up with a date with another time zone than the one in the json string.
You can change this behaviour by creating a JsonSerializerSetting and setting
DateParseHandling to DateParseHandling.DateTimeOffset.
An example:
var json = #"{ ""Time"": ""2015-10-28T14:05:22.0091621+00:00""}";
Console.WriteLine(json);
// Result: { "Time": "2015-10-28T14:05:22.0091621+00:00" }
var jObject1 = JObject.Parse(json);
Console.WriteLine(jObject1.ToString());
// Result: { "Time": "2015-10-28T15:05:22.0091621+01:00" }
var jObject2 = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json,
new Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializerSettings
{
DateParseHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.DateParseHandling.DateTimeOffset
});
Console.WriteLine(jObject2.ToString());
// Result: { "Time": "2015-10-28T14:05:22.0091621+00:00" }

For me the key difference I was interested in was Speed.
I made a simple test to find out if it was faster to use JToken.Parse(string) or DeserializeObject<JToken>(string) to create a large amount of JToken and these were the results after 2,000,000 iterations using a sample of real world data
Method
Operating System Ticks
Milliseconds
JsonConvert
86123945
8612ms
JToken
67671724
6767ms
There was some variation between runs but the difference was always large.
Here is the test so you can modify it or run it yourself:
private static string s = #"{'stream':'btcusdt #bookTicker','data':{'u':20430107433,'s':'BTCUSDT','b':'21223.72000000','B':'3.29440000','a':'21223.73000000','A':'2.05450000'}}";
private static Stopwatch sw = new Stopwatch();
private static void Main(string[] args)
{
JToken convert = default;
sw.Restart();
for (int i = 0; i < 2000000; i++)
{
convert = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<JToken>(s);
}
Console.WriteLine("JsonConvert: " + sw.ElapsedTicks + " [" + sw.ElapsedMilliseconds + "ms]");
convert.ToString();
convert = default;
sw.Restart();
for (int i = 0; i < 2000000; i++)
{
convert = JToken.Parse(s);
}
Console.WriteLine("JToken : " + sw.ElapsedTicks + " [" + sw.ElapsedMilliseconds + "ms]");
convert.ToString();
Console.ReadLine();
}

I knew an advantage that JsonConvert.DeserializeObject can deserialize an Array/List json text directly, but JObject cannot.
Try below sample code:
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
namespace NetCoreJsonNETDemo
{
internal class Person
{
[JsonProperty]
internal string Name
{
get;
set;
}
[JsonProperty]
internal int? Age
{
get;
set;
}
}
internal class PersonContainer
{
public List<Person> Persons
{
get;
set;
}
}
class Program
{
static T RecoverPersonsWithJsonConvert<T>(string json)
{
return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(json);
}
static T RecoverPersonsWithJObejct<T>(string json) where T : class
{
try
{
return JObject.Parse(json).ToObject<T>();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("JObject threw an Exception: " + ex.Message);
return null;
}
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<Person> persons = new List<Person>();
persons.Add(new Person()
{
Name = "Jack",
Age = 18
});
persons.Add(new Person()
{
Name = "Sam",
Age = null
});
persons.Add(new Person()
{
Name = "Bob",
Age = 36
});
string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(persons, new JsonSerializerSettings()
{
Formatting = Formatting.Indented
});
List<Person> newPersons = RecoverPersonsWithJsonConvert<List<Person>>(json);
newPersons = RecoverPersonsWithJObejct<List<Person>>(json);//JObject will throw an error, since the json text is an array.
PersonContainer personContainer = new PersonContainer()
{
Persons = persons
};
json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(personContainer, new JsonSerializerSettings()
{
Formatting = Formatting.Indented
});
newPersons = RecoverPersonsWithJObejct<PersonContainer>(json).Persons;
newPersons = null;
newPersons = RecoverPersonsWithJsonConvert<PersonContainer>(json).Persons;
Console.WriteLine("Press any key to end...");
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}

Apart from the answers provided here around usage, which are correct as per me :
Jobject.Parse -> when the Json is not strongly Typed or you do not know the structure of Json ahead of time
JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T> -> When you know which class or type to cast the Json in. T can be a complex class or a simple type
My answer is based on the performance in case where the structure is not known, as given in the OP code, if we benchmark the usage of both methods for performance, it is observed that Jobject.Parse() fares well in terms of allocated memory, please ignore the name of methods, I am first calling the method with 'JsonConvert.DeserializeObject' and then second method is with Jobject.Parse