Develop Reference

Convert nested JSON to simple JSON

I'm trying to convert a nested json to simple json by recursively traversing.
(Structure of input json is unknown)
for example, I want json like this
{
"FirstName": "Rahul",
"LastName": "B",
"EmpType": {
"RID": 2,
"Title": "Full Time"
},
"CTC": "3.5",
"Exp": "1",
"ComplexObj": {
"RID": 3,
"Title": {
"Test": "RID",
"TWO": {
"Test": 12
}
}
}
}
to be converted something like this
{
"FirstName": "Rahul",
"LastName": "B",
"EmpType__RID": 2,
"EmpType__Title": "Full Time",
"CTC": "3.5",
"Exp": "1",
"ComplexObj__RID": 3,
"ComplexObj__Title__Test": "RID",
"ComplexObj__Title__TWO__Test": 12
}
each fields in nested object will be changed to key which represents its actual path.
this is what I have done so far.
public static void ConvertNestedJsonToSimpleJson(JObject jobject, ref JObject jobjectRef, string currentNodeName = "", string rootPath = "")
{
string propName = "";
if (currentNodeName.Equals(rootPath))
{
propName = currentNodeName;
}
else
{
propName = (rootPath == "" && currentNodeName == "") ? rootPath + "" + currentNodeName : rootPath + "__" + currentNodeName;
}
foreach (JProperty jprop in jobject.Properties())
{
if (jprop.Children<JObject>().Count() == 0)
{
jobjectRef.Add(propName == "" ? jprop.Name : propName + "__" + jprop.Name, jprop.Value);
}
else
{
currentNodeName = jprop.Name;
rootPath = rootPath == "" ? jprop.Name : rootPath;
ConvertNestedJsonToSimpleJson(JObject.Parse(jprop.Value.ToString()), ref jobjectRef, currentNodeName, rootPath);
}
}
}
and getting wrong result
{
"FirstName": "Rahul",
"LastName": "B",
"EmpType__RID": 2,
"EmpType__Title": "Full Time",
"CTC": "3.5",
"Exp": "1",
"EmpType__ComplexObj__RID": 3,
"EmpType__Title__Test": "RID",
"EmpType__two__Test": 12
}
will appreciate any help on correcting my code, or any other approach to archive this.

You don't need to convert the value of the property to string and then parse it again every time - just cast it to JObject
You don't need the complicated conditional logic to generate the name of the property - just use this: prefix + jprop.Name + "__"
The code:
public static void FlattenJson(JObject node, JObject result, string prefix = "")
{
foreach (var jprop in node.Properties())
{
if (jprop.Children<JObject>().Count() == 0)
{
result.Add(prefix + jprop.Name, jprop.Value);
}
else
{
FlattenJson((JObject)jprop.Value, $"{prefix}{jprop.Name}__", result);
}
}
}
You can call it like this:
var node = JObject.Parse(/* the input string */);
var result = new JObject();
FlattenJson(node, result);

Your problem is in the line rootPath = rootPath == "" ? jprop.Name : rootPath;. You are changing the rootPath when you first come across EmpType which means when you process ComplexObj your rootPath is wrong. What I believe you intended is just to change what you were passing into the recursive function.
As it is though it is unnecessary to keep track of root and currentnode as two separate items. Better would be to just track the current prefix for a given node in code that looks more like this:
public static void ConvertNestedJsonToSimpleJson(JObject input, JObject output, string prefix = "")
{
foreach (JProperty jprop in input.Properties())
{
var name = prefix==""?jprop.Name:String.Format("{0}__{1}", prefix,jprop.Name);
if (jprop.Children<JObject>().Count() == 0)
{
output.Add(name, jprop.Value);
}
else
{
ConvertNestedJsonToSimpleJson((JObject)jprop.Value, output, name);
}
}
}
This now gives me the output:
{
"FirstName": "Rahul",
"LastName": "B",
"EmpType__RID": 2,
"EmpType__Title": "Full Time",
"CTC": "3.5",
"Exp": "1",
"ComplexObj__RID": 3,
"ComplexObj__Title__Test": "RID",
"ComplexObj__Title__TWO__Test": 12
}
which looks correct.

Could you do something like this using linq
var jsonObj = jobject.select(x => new CustomJson {
FirstName = x.FirstName,
LastName = x.LastName,
EmpTypeId = x.EmpType.Id,
Title = x.EmpType.Title
etc etc
});

Neo4jClient ForEach merge

I am trying to write a query in neo4jclient to add/update all parts of a hierarchy tree into the database in 1 hit.
I am having trouble when it comes to using merge on collections though.
I see the foreach function but haven't been successful getting it to work.
So far I've tried the below
I've tried writing it as a full string but keep getting an exception of 'Neo4jClient.NeoException: SyntaxException: Invalid input '.': expected an identifier character, whitespace, '}' or ':' (line 6, column 90 (offset: 266))'
Below the string is how I imagine the code to work if the foreach function worked like c# but don't know the correct syntax.
Any help would be really appreciated.
public void Save(CypherAspirationsViewModel aspirations, string emailAddress)
{
var query = graphClient.Cypher
.Match("(user:User)")
.Where((CypherUser user) => user.EmailAddress == emailAddress)
// Aspirations
.Merge("user" + CypherRelationships.Aspirations + ">(aspirations:Aspirations {Guid: {aspirationsGuid}})")
.OnCreate()
.Set("aspirations = {aspirations}")
.WithParams(new
{
aspirationsGuid = aspirations.CypherAspirations.Guid,
aspirations = aspirations.CypherAspirations
});
// Permanent Remuneration
if (aspirations.CypherPermanentRemuneration != null) {
query = query.Merge("aspirations" + CypherRelationships.PermanentRemuneration + ">(permanentRemuneration:Remuneration {Guid: {permanentRemunerationGuid}})")
.OnCreate()
.Set("permanentRemuneration = {permanentRemuneration}")
.WithParams(new
{
permanentRemunerationGuid = aspirations.CypherPermanentRemuneration.Guid,
permanentRemuneration = aspirations.CypherPermanentRemuneration
});
}
// Contract Remuneration
if (aspirations.CypherContractRemuneration != null) {
query = query.Merge("aspirations" + CypherRelationships.ContractRemuneration + ">(contractRemuneration:Remuneration {Guid: {contractRemunerationGuid}})")
.OnCreate()
.Set("contractRemuneration = {contractRemuneration}")
.WithParams(new
{
contractRemunerationGuid = aspirations.CypherContractRemuneration.Guid,
contractRemuneration = aspirations.CypherContractRemuneration
});
}
// Consultant Remuneration
if(aspirations.CypherConsultantRemuneration != null)
{
query = query.Merge("aspirations" + CypherRelationships.ConsultantRemuneration + ">(consultantRemuneration:Remuneration {Guid: {consultantRemunerationGuid}})")
.OnCreate()
.Set("consultantRemuneration = {consultantRemuneration}")
.WithParams(new
{
consultantRemunerationGuid = aspirations.CypherConsultantRemuneration.Guid,
consultantRemuneration = aspirations.CypherConsultantRemuneration
});
}
// Locations
if (aspirations.CypherLocations != null)
{
//string forEachString = "(n in {locations} | merge (aspirations " + CypherRelationships.Location + ">(location:Location {Guid: {n.Guid}})) on create set location.Name = n.Name, location.Longitude = n.Longitude, location.Latitude = n.Latitude)";
//query = query
// .ForEach(forEachString)
// .WithParam("locations", aspirations.CypherLocations);
query = query.ForEach("CypherLocation location in aspirations.CypherLocations")
.Merge("aspirations" + CypherRelationships.Location + ">(location:Location {Guid: {locationGuid}})")
.OnCreate()
.Set("location = {location}")
.WithParams(new
{
locationGuid = location.Guid,
location = location
});
}
query.ExecuteWithoutResults();
}
Cypher Query:
MATCH (user:User)
WHERE (user.EmailAddress = "email")
MERGE user-[:ASPIRATIONS]->(aspirations:Aspirations {Guid: "0d700793-4702-41ee-99f1-685472e65e51"})
ON CREATE
SET aspirations = {
"FullTime": true,
"PartTime": false,
"Permanent": false,
"Contract": false,
"Consultant": false,
"WillingToRelocate": false,
"CommuteEnum": 40,
"Guid": "0d700793-4702-41ee-99f1-685472e65e51"
}
FOREACH (n in [
{
"Name": "Location1",
"Longitude": 10.0,
"Latitude": 1.0,
"Guid": "a9f25fda-9559-4723-80ec-d8711a260adc"
}
] |
merge (aspirations -[:LOCATION]->(location:Location {Guid: {n.Guid}}))
on create set location.Name = n.Name, location.Longitude = n.Longitude, location.Latitude = n.Latitude)

Ok, I think I've got it nailed. There are a few Cypher changes needed (depending on server version)
First off, the original error is from the final Merge in the ForEach - you have {Guid: {n.Guid}} but you don't need the extra {} - so it should be: {Guid: n.Guid}.
Once you've got that, if you're going against a 3.0 DB, you'll need to add some parentheses in your merge methods, for example:
.Merge("user" + CypherRelationships.Aspirations + ">(aspirations:Aspirations {Guid: {aspirationsGuid}})")
should become:
.Merge("user" + CypherRelationships.AspirationsWithClosingParentheses + ">(aspirations:Aspirations {Guid: {aspirationsGuid}})")
where AspirationsWithClosingParentheses is something like:
var AspirationsWithClosingParentheses = "Aspirations)--"
You'll need to do that for every merge, as 3.0 requires the identifiers to be surrounded!

If all three textboxes are empty don't do anything

If all three textboxes are empty don't do anything. However below code shows all three are empty too. But I don't want this.
var textBoxes = new [] {
new { txb = txtUserName, name = "txtUserName" },
new { txb = txtPassw, name = "txtPassw" },
new { txb = txtDatabase , name = "txtDatabase " }
};
var empty = textBoxes.Where(x => x.txb.Text == "").ToList();
if(empty.Any())
{
MessageBox.Show("Please enter " + String.Join(" and ", empty.Select(x => x.name)));
}

A modification of #MarcinJuraszek's answer:
var textBoxes = new [] {
new { txb = txtUserName, name = "txtUserName" },
new { txb = txtPassw, name = "txtPassw" },
new { txb = txtDatabase , name = "txtDatabase " }
};
var empty = textBoxes.Where(x => String.IsWhitespaceOrEmpty(x.txb.Text)).ToList();
if(empty.Any() && empty.Count != textboxes.Length)
{
MessageBox.Show("Please enter " + String.Join(" and ", empty.Select(x => x.name)));
}
I added an additional check to not display the message box if ALL the strings are empty. I also changed the comparison to use IsWhitespaceOrEmpty in case you have a bunch of spaces (which is generally not valid input). You could also use IsNullOrEmpty, which is generally considered better practice than == "". Because you are dealing with text boxes (whose strings are never null) you would still be ok using the old comparison, however.

var textBoxes = new [] {
new { txb = txtUserName, name = "txtUserName" },
new { txb = txtPassw, name = "txtPassw" },
new { txb = txtDatabase , name = "txtDatabase " }
};
var empty = textBoxes.Where(x => x.txb.Text == "").ToList();
if(empty.Any())
{
MessageBox.Show("Please enter " + String.Join(" and ", empty.Select(x => x.name)));
}

Show values of List<string[]> without using extra variables or using the foreach loop

I have fallen into a doubt and I don't know how to solve it, the case is:
I have created an "arrayed string" list like this:
List<string[]> definitions;
I have added to it values like this:
definitions.Add(new string[2] { "A", "Def.1" });
definitions.Add(new string[2] { "B", "Def.2" });
In order to show the values I do it like this:
foreach (string[] theDefinition in definitions)
{
Console.WriteLine(theDefinition[0] + "\tdef: " + theDefinition[1]);
}
So far this works fine, but how can I show the values without the foreach I mean something like this:
Console.WriteLine(definitions[0] ...)
What should I write in the 3 dots to show either the "A" or the "Def.1" from the list in index 0.
I guess overcoming this is by doing something like:
string[] temp = definitions[0]
Console.WriteLine(temp[0] + ", " + temp[1]);
How to achieve it just using the Console.WriteLine without using extra variables, is this possible? and how? Thank you in advance.

Console.WriteLine(definitions[0][0] + "\tdef: " + definitions[0][1]);

The other answers are correct of course but why not just use a Dictionary instead of List of a 2 dimensional string array.
var definitions = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
{ "A", "Def.1" },
{ "B", "Def.2" }
};
foreach (var keypair in definitions)
{
Console.WriteLine("{0} \tdef: {1} ", keypair.Key, keypair.Value);
}

A better way would be to declare a definition type
public class Definition
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Value { get; set; }
public override string ToString()
{
return Name + "\tdef: " + Value;
}
}
Now you can simplify your code like this
List<Definition> definitions = new List<Definition> {
new Definition { Name = "A", Value = "Def.1" },
new Definition { Name = "B", Value = "Def.2" },
};
foreach (Definition theDefinition in definitions)
{
Console.WriteLine(theDefinition);
}
Of cause you can use a fluent version of it as proposed by Nikhil Agrawal, which is now even simpler.
definitions.ForEach(def => Console.WriteLine(def));
prints
A def: Def.1
B def: Def.2
And accessing the fields is more descriptive than using array indexes
Definition def = definitions[0];
Console.WriteLine(def.Name + ", " + def.Value);
// compared to
// Console.WriteLine(temp[0] + ", " + temp[1]);

You can access it like this: definitions[definition_index][string_index].
Try:
Console.WriteLine(definitions[0][0] + "\tdef: " + definitions[0][1]);

for (var i = 0; i < definitions.Length; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine(definitions[i][0] + "\tdef: " + definitions[i][1]);
}

One Line Answer instead of 3 Lines. No use of For or foreach Loop or Extra Variable when LINQ is here
definitions.ForEach(x => Console.WriteLine(x[0] + "\tdef: " + x[1]));

Query nested objects from MongoDB (Part 2)

With some earlier help, I created a C# script in SSIS to retrieve data from MongoDB to SQL Server. While regular documents are retrieved easily, nested documents and arrays are problematic.
Problem 1: I have shipping_address.country that returns results by using
this.UserDBBuffer.SCountry = document["shipping_address"].AsBsonDocument["country"].ToString();
However, mlocation.address gives me an error '"country" not found' using the same code:
this.UserDBBuffer.Country = document["mlocation"].AsBsonDocument["country"].ToString();
Problem 2: Retrieving items from arrays. I have an array that looks like "devices -> Document -> device_data -> model" or "devices -> Document -> device_data -> brand". How do I retrieve "model" or "brand" values in my code?
Thanks a lot for your help. Below is my entire code:
public override void CreateNewOutputRows()
{
string connectionString = "mongodb://localhost";
MongoServer myMongo = MongoServer.Create(connectionString);
myMongo.Connect();
var db = myMongo.GetDatabase("UserDB");
//Declaring variables for Date Created conversions
string DateCreatedString;
DateTime DateCreatedDateUTC;
DateTime DateCreatedDateLocal;
var fields = Fields.Include("mlocation.country", "mlocation", "_id", "primary_email", "gender", "date_created");
var collection = db.GetCollection<BsonDocument>("users");
foreach (var document in collection.FindAll().SetFields(fields))
{
this.UserDBBuffer.AddRow();
this.UserDBBuffer.ID = document["_id"] == null ? "" : document["_id"].ToString();
this.UserDBBuffer.Country = document["mlocation"].AsBsonDocument["country"].ToString();
this.UserDBBuffer.PrimaryEmail = document["primary_email"] == null ? "" : document["primary_email"].ToString();
this.UserDBBuffer.Gender = document["gender"] == null ? "" : document["gender"].ToString();
//Importing Date Created as String for data manipulation
DateCreatedString = document["date_created"] == null ? "" : document["date_created"].ToString();
//First, making sure that we have a UTC datetime
DateCreatedDateUTC = DateTime.Parse(DateCreatedString).ToUniversalTime();
//Second, converting to Local Time
DateCreatedDateLocal = DateTime.Parse(DateCreatedString).ToLocalTime();
//Finally, assigning variables to rows
this.UserDBBuffer.DateTimeCreatedUTC = DateCreatedDateUTC;
this.UserDBBuffer.DateTimeCreatedLocal = DateCreatedDateLocal;
}
myMongo.Disconnect();
}
For Problem 2, I found a Java Script that someone used; if I can convert it to C#, it might help a lot:
count = 0;
function user_list(){
var cursor = db.users.find()
//var cursor = db.users.find({"devices": {"$ne":[]}})
cursor.forEach(function(user) {
var deviceInfo = "";
if (user.devices){
if (user.devices[0]){
dd = user.devices[0].device_data;
if (dd) {
deviceInfo = dd.model + "," + dd.brand + "," + dd.model + "," + dd.device + "," + dd.pixel_height + "," + dd.pixel_width + "," + dd.pixel_format;
}
}
}
var location = "";
if (user.mlocation) location = user.mlocation.country;
print(user._id + "," + location + "," + user.primary_email + "," + user.date_created + "," + deviceInfo);
count++;
});
}
user_list();
print(count);

For problem 1, are you sure all docs contain a field mlocation that is a document containing the country field. I was able to reproduce the "Element country not found" with a document that is missing the value.
e.g. with
db.users.find()
{ "_id" : ObjectId("4f04c56a0f8fa4413bed1078"), "primary_email" : "email#email.com", "shipping_address" : [ {"country" : "USA", "city" : "San Francisco" }, { "country" : "IN", "city" : "Chennai" } ], "mlocation" : { "country" : "Canada", "city" : "Montreal" } }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("4f04d1605ab5a3805aaa8666"), "primary_email" : "incorrect#email.com", "shipping_address" : [ { "country" : "MX", "city" : "Cabo San Lucas" } ], "mlocation" : { "city" : "Montreal" } }
the 2nd document throws the exception. You can either check for its existance or use the default value option
document["mlocation"].AsBsonDocument.GetValue("country", null)
For problem 2, you cannot cast a BsonArray as a document. So for the above e.g to get shipping_address.country you can do something like
foreach (var addr in document["shipping_address"].AsBsonArray)
{
var country = addr.AsBsonDocument["country"].AsString;
}

Assuming the devices element is an array, just drill your way down into the element you are looking for, like this:
BsonDocument document; // assume this comes from somewhere
var devices = document["devices"].AsBsonArray;
var device = devices[0].AsBsonDocument; // first element of array
var deviceData = device["device_data"].AsBsonDocument;
var model = deviceData["model"].AsString;
var brand = deviceData["brand"].AsString;
I've broken it down into steps for clarity, but you can combine some of these steps into longer statements if you want.

To clarify your comment to Robert's answer, you can use BsonDocument.Contains to check if a given BsonDocument contains a field of the specified name before getting its value (http://api.mongodb.org/csharp/current/html/6181f23f-f6ce-fc7d-25a7-fc682ffd3c04.htm)

Instead of:
var mlocation = document["mlocation"].AsBsonDocument;
var country = "";
if (mlocation != null && mlocation.Contains("country"))
{
country = mlocation.AsBsonDocument.GetValue("country").ToString();
}
I would write:
var mlocation = document["mlocation"].AsBsonDocument;
var country = "";
if (mlocation.Contains("country"))
{
country = mlocation["country"].AsString;
}
And instead of:
var devices = document["devices"].AsBsonArray;
if (devices.ToList().Count > 0)
{
if (devices[0].AsBsonDocument != null)
{
var deviceinfo = devices[0].AsBsonDocument;
if (deviceinfo["device_data"].AsBsonDocument != null)
{
var deviceData = deviceinfo["device_data"].AsBsonDocument;
model = deviceData.GetValue("model", null).AsString;
}
}
}
I would write:
var devices = document["devices"].AsBsonArray;
if (devices.Count > 0)
{
var deviceinfo = devices[0].AsBsonDocument;
if (deviceinfo.Contains("device_data"))
{
var deviceData = deviceinfo["device_data"].AsBsonDocument;
var model = deviceData.GetValue("model", "").AsString; // "" instead of null
}
}