Using JObject and JProperty with JSON.Net 4.0

asp.net, c#, deserialization, json, json.net

Solution

There are many ways you can do that, and what you have is fine. A few other alternatives are shown below:

- Get the first element of the array, instead of all the children

Use `SelectToken` to go to the first array element with a single call

    string json = @"{
      ""data"": [
        {
          ""installed"": 1,
          ""user_likes"": 1,
          ""user_education_history"": 1,
          ""friends_education_history"": 1,
          ""bookmarked"": 1
        }
      ]
    }";

    JObject j = JObject.Parse(json);

    // Directly traversing the graph
    var lst = j["data"][0].Select(jp => ((JProperty)jp).Name).ToList();
    Console.WriteLine(string.Join("--", lst));

    // Using SelectToken
    lst = j.SelectToken("data[0]").Children<JProperty>().Select(p => p.Name).ToList();
    Console.WriteLine(string.Join("--", lst));

Problem

I'm trying to deserialize JSON in this format: ``` { "data": [ { "installed": 1, "user_likes": 1, "user_education_history": 1, "friends_education_history": 1, "bookmarked": 1 } ] } ``` to a simple string array like this: ``` { "installed", "user_likes", "user_education_history", "friends_education_history", "bookmarked" } ``` using `JSON.NET 4.0` I've gotten it to work using the `CustomCreationConverter' ``` public class ListConverter : CustomCreationConverter<List<string>> { public override List<string> Create(Type objectType) { return new List<string>(); } public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer) { var lst = new List<string>(); //don't care about the inital 'data' element reader.Read(); while (reader.Read()) { if (reader.TokenType == JsonToken.PropertyName) { lst.Add(reader.Value.ToString()); } } return lst; } } ``` but this really seems like overkill, especially if I want to create one for many different json responses. I've tried using `JObject` but it doesn't seem like I'm doing it right: ``` List<string> lst = new List<string>(); JObject j = JObject.Parse(json_string); foreach (JProperty p in j.SelectToken("data").Children().Children()) { lst.Add(p.Name); } ``` Is there a better way to do this?

Original source