Deserializing JSON data to C using JSON NET

Question

I m relatively new to working with C  and JSON data and am seeking guidance   I m using C  3 0  with  NET3 5SP1  and JSON NET 3 5r6   I have a defined C  class that I need to populate from a JSON structure   However  not every JSON structure for an entry that is retrieved from the web service contains all possible attributes that are defined within the C  class     I ve been being doing what seems to be the wrong  hard way and just picking out each value one by one from the JObject and transforming the string into the desired class property   JsonSerializer serializer   new JsonSerializer    var o    JObject serializer Deserialize myjsondata    MyAccount EmployeeID    string o  employeeid   0     What is the best way to deserialize a JSON structure into the C  class and handling possible missing data from the JSON source   My class is defined as     public class MyAccount           JsonProperty PropertyName    username        public string UserID   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    givenname        public string GivenName   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    sn        public string Surname   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    passwordexpired        public DateTime PasswordExpire   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    primaryaffiliation        public string PrimaryAffiliation   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    affiliation        public string   Affiliation   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    affiliationstatus        public string AffiliationStatus   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    affiliationmodifytimestamp        public DateTime AffiliationLastModified   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    employeeid        public string EmployeeID   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    accountstatus        public string AccountStatus   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    accountstatusexpiration        public DateTime AccountStatusExpiration   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    accountstatusexpmaxdate        public DateTime AccountStatusExpirationMaxDate   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    accountstatusmodifytimestamp        public DateTime AccountStatusModified   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    accountstatusexpnotice        public string AccountStatusExpNotice   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    accountstatusmodifiedby        public Dictionary lt DateTime  string gt  AccountStatusModifiedBy   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    entrycreatedate        public DateTime EntryCreatedate   get  set          JsonProperty PropertyName    entrydeactivationdate        public DateTime EntryDeactivationDate   get  set           And a sample of the JSON to parse is          givenname              Robert              passwordexpired    20091031041550Z        accountstatus              active              accountstatusexpiration              20100612000000Z              accountstatusexpmaxdate              20110410000000Z              accountstatusmodifiedby              20100214173242Z    tdecker            20100304003242Z    jsmith            20100324103242Z    jsmith            20100325000005Z    rjones            20100326210634Z    jsmith            20100326211130Z    jsmith              accountstatusmodifytimestamp              20100312001213Z              affiliation              Employee            Contractor            Staff              affiliationmodifytimestamp              20100312001213Z              affiliationstatus              detached              entrycreatedate              20000922072747Z              username              rjohnson              primaryaffiliation              Staff              employeeid              999777666              sn              Johnson

User · Answer

Use   var rootObject    JsonConvert DeserializeObject lt RootObject gt  string json     Create your classes on JSON 2 C     Json NET documentation  Serializing and Deserializing JSON with Json NET

User · Answer

Have you tried using the generic DeserializeObject method   JsonConvert DeserializeObject lt MyAccount gt  myjsondata     Any missing fields in the JSON data should simply be left NULL   UPDATE   If the JSON string is an array  try this   var jarray   JsonConvert DeserializeObject lt List lt MyAccount gt  gt  myjsondata     jarray should then be a List lt MyAccount gt    ANOTHER UPDATE   The exception you re getting isn t consistent with an array of objects- I think the serializer is having problems with your Dictionary-typed accountstatusmodifiedby property   Try excluding the accountstatusmodifiedby  property from the serialization and see if that helps   If it does  you may need to represent that property differently   Documentation  Serializing and Deserializing JSON with Json NET

User · Answer

You can try checking some of the class generators online for further information  However  I believe some of the answers have been useful  Here s my approach that may be useful   The following code was made with a dynamic method in mind   dynObj    JArray  JsonConvert DeserializeObject nvm    foreach JObject item in dynObj     foreach JObject trend in item  trends        Console WriteLine   0 - 1 - 2    trend  query    trend  name    trend  url            This code basically allows you to access members contained in the Json string  Just a different way without the need of the classes  query  trend and url are the objects contained in the Json string   You can also use this website  Don t trust the classes a 100  but you get the idea

User · Answer

Assuming your sample data is correct  your givenname  and other entries wrapped in brackets are arrays in JS    you ll want to use List for those data types   and List for say accountstatusexpmaxdate    I think you example has the dates incorrectly formatted though  so uncertain as to what else is incorrect in your example   This is an old post  but wanted to make note of the issues

User · Answer

Building off of bbant s answer  this is my complete solution for deserializing JSON from a remote URL   using Newtonsoft Json  using System Net Http   namespace Base       public class ApiConsumer lt T gt                public T data          private string url           public CalendarApiConsumer string url                        this url   url              this data   getItems                       private T getItems                         T result   default T               HttpClient client   new HttpClient                    This allows for debugging possible JSON issues             var settings   new JsonSerializerSettings                               Error    sender  args    gt                                        if  System Diagnostics Debugger IsAttached                                                System Diagnostics Debugger Break                                                                        using  HttpResponseMessage response   client GetAsync this url  Result                                if  response IsSuccessStatusCode                                        result   JsonConvert DeserializeObject lt T gt  response Content ReadAsStringAsync   Result  settings                                               return result                      Usage would be like   ApiConsumer lt FeedResult gt  feed   new ApiConsumer lt FeedResult gt   http   example info feeds feeds aspx alt json-in-script      Where FeedResult is the class generated using the Xamasoft JSON Class Generator  Here is a screenshot of the settings I used  allowing for weird property names which the web version could not account for

User · Answer

I found my I had built my object incorrectly  I used http   json2csharp com  to generate me my object class from the JSON  Once I had the correct Oject I was able to cast without issue  Norbit  Noob mistake  Thought I d add it in case you have the same issue

User · Answer

You can use   JsonConvert PopulateObject json  obj     here  json is the json string obj is the target object   See  example  Note  PopulateObject   will not erase obj s list data  after Populate    obj s list member will contains its original data and data from json string

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