How can I parse a JSON string that would cause illegal C# identifiers?

c#, json, json.net

Solution

You can deserialize to a dictionary.

public class Item
{
    public string fajr { get; set; }
    public string sunrise { get; set; }
    public string zuhr { get; set; }
    public string asr { get; set; }
    public string maghrib { get; set; }
    public string isha { get; set; }
}

var dict = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, Item>>(json);

Problem

I have been using NewtonSoft JSON Convert library to parse and convert JSON string to C# objects. But now I have came across a really awkward JSON string and I am unable to convert it into C# object because I cant make a C# class out of this JSON string. Here is the JSON string ``` { "1": { "fajr": "04:15", "sunrise": "05:42", "zuhr": "12:30", "asr": "15:53", "maghrib": "19:18", "isha": "20:40" }, "2": { "fajr": "04:15", "sunrise": "05:42", "zuhr": "12:30", "asr": "15:53", "maghrib": "19:18", "isha": "20:41" } } ``` The C# class required to parse this JSON string should be like this: ``` public class 1 { public string fajr { get; set; } public string sunrise { get; set; } public string zuhr { get; set; } public string asr { get; set; } public string maghrib { get; set; } public string isha { get; set; } } public class 2 { public string fajr { get; set; } public string sunrise { get; set; } public string zuhr { get; set; } public string asr { get; set; } public string maghrib { get; set; } public string isha { get; set; } } ``` But it cant be a true C# class because we know that Class names cannot start with a number. It will be really great if anyone can suggest how to parse such type of json string.

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