C# deserialize dynamic JSON

c#, deserialization, json, parsing, visual-studio

Solution

Here is one way which I use in production code. It might not be perfect, but it gets the job done.

using using System.Web.Script.Serialization;

// .....

    public object GetJson(string url)
    {
        var json = Get(url); // I have code that makes this work, it gets a JSON string

        try
        {
            var deserializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
            var result = deserializer.DeserializeObject(json);

            return result;
        }
        catch (ArgumentException e)
        {
            // Error handling....
        }            
    }

The object you receive back will be a generic Map, List, or whatever depending on the structure of the JSON. If you know what structure to expect, this is very useful without writing a customized parser or target object type.

You could then enumerate the keys of the Map, for example, to find your key that varies. A wrapper or conversion would then provide a consistent API to the rest of your application layer. Something like:

public class Order {
     public string OrderNum { private set; get; }
     public string ShortDesc { private set; get; }
     public string Desc { private set; get; }

     public static Order FromJson(object jsonResult) 
     {
          var m = jsonResult as Map<string, object>;

          // Handle errors, but I am not

          var firstPair = m.First();

          var detail = firstPair.Value as Map<string, object>;

          var dummy = new Order()
          {
              OrderNum = firstPair.Key,
              ShortDesc = detail["short_description"].ToString();
              Desc = detail["detail_description"].ToString();
          }

          return dummy;
     }
}

Problem

I have the following Json string that I need to deserialize. ``` {"123456789": {"short_description":"Delivered", "detail_description":"Your item has been delivered" } } ``` The first field "123456789" is an id number, so basically this value can be different depending on the data being queried. I'm using C# in visual studio. Obviously because the value of the first field can change I can't use a predefined class to deserialize the JSON into because this field will be used as the class name but the field value won't match the class name. Is there a way to deserialize this into some sort of dynamic class but still access the fields as if it was a predefined class? Alternatively is there a way to deserialize this into a predefined class even thought the class name doesn't match? The service providing this data is a third party one so i don't have any control over it.

Original source

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