Deserializing JSON into string array

Question

I just started dabbling with C#, and I've been banging my head over JSON deserialization for a while now. I'm using Newtonsoft.Json library. I'm expecting just a json response of an array of dictionaries as such

[{"id":"669","content":" testing","comments":"","ups":"0","downs":"0"}, {"id":"482","content":" test2","comments":"","ups":"0","downs":"0"}]

Right now I have: (note: download is just a string holding the json string)

string[] arr = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<string[]>(download);

I've tried many different ways of doing this, each failed. Is there a standard way for parsing json of this type?

Edlyn

Possible duplicate of #1208231 – Unsaddle

Answer 1

You have an array of objects not strings. Create a class that maps the properties and deserialize into that,

public class MyClass {
    public string id { get; set; }
    public string content { get; set; }
    public string ups { get; set; }
    public string downs { get; set; }
}

MyClass[] result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MyClass[]>(download);

There are only a few basic types in JSON, but it is helpful to learn and recognize them. Objects, Arrays, strings, etc. http://www.json.org/ and http://www.w3schools.com/json/default.asp are good resources to get started. For example a string array in JSON would look like,

["One", "Two", "Three"]

Veljkov

You're welcome! In addition to serializing into a strongly typed class, you can use JObject.Parse(jsonstring). This returns a JObject which you can then access the properties of like obj.Value<string>("content"). Of course the strongly typed approach is recommend, but it's good to know the alternatives :) – Veljkov

@Veljkov What does (download) exacly stand for? – Orotund

@Fernando This was the variable Chris was using, it holds the json string that needs to be parsed. – Veljkov

Answer 2

I implement this and hope this is helpful all.

 var jsonResponse = 
  [{"Id":2,"Name":"Watch"},{"Id":3,"Name":"TV"},{"Id":4,"Name":""}]

 var items = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<MyClass>>(jsonResponse);

where MyClass is the entity

 public class MyClass
            {
                public int Id { get; set; }
                public string Name { get; set; }
            }

Paluas