Deserialize flat JSON data into structure with JSon.net

Question

I'm consuming a web service that returns JSON data, and in numerous cases the services returns several properties in one object that I would like to group into a class on the C# side. Consider a class structure like:

  class Person
  {
      public Address Address { get; set; }
      public string Name {  get; set; }
  }

  class Address
  {
      public string StreetAddress { get; set; }
      public string City {  get; set; }
      public string ZipCode {  get; set; }
  }

And JSON data like:

{ "Name" : "Pilchie",
"StreetAddress" : "1234 Random St",
"City" : "Nowheretown",
"Zip" : "12345"
}

Is it possible to attribute my Person and Address classes so that they serialize/deserialize into this format?

Create a DTO with the structure / field naming you want then use that with json.net. — Jack Hughes
– Jack Hughes, Commented Jul 20, 2012 at 16:13

Peter Ritchie · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-20 17:04:22Z

I don't think you can get JSON.NET to do it all in one shot--You'll have to create the Person object manually. But, you can do it without creating separate DTO classes. For example:

var jsonText = "{ \"Name\" : \"Pilchie\"," +
            "\"StreetAddress\" : \"1234 Random St\"," +
            "\"City\" : \"Nowheretown\"," +
            "\"Zip\" : \"12345\"" +
            "}";
JObject jsonObject = (JObject) JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(jsonText);

var person =
    new Person
    {
        Address = new Address
                    {
                    City = (String) jsonObject["City"],
                    StreetAddress = (String) jsonObject["StreetAddress"],
                    ZipCode = (string) jsonObject["Zip"]
                    },
        Name = (string) jsonObject["Name"]
    };

And serializing:

JsonConvert.SerializeObject(
    new
    {
        person.Name,
        person.Address.StreetAddress,
        person.Address.City,
        Zip = person.Address.ZipCode
    });

Justin Rusbatch · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-20 16:15:17Z

0

I think the simplest approach to deserializing the data you're consuming would be to create a simple DTO object that matches the format of the JSON data. You could then easily map the data to the new structure using AutoMapper, or a similar library.

answered Jul 20, 2012 at 16:15

Justin Rusbatch

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Comments

Jon · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-20 16:30:28Z

0

It all depends on how you will use the data. You could do something like this if you just want access to an address property:

class Person
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string StreetAddress { get; set; }
    public string City { get; set; }
    public string ZipCode { get; set; }

    [ScriptIgnore]
    public Address Address { get {return new Address(){StreetAddress = this.StreetAddress,
                                                       City = this.City,
                                                       ZipCode = this.ZipCode} } }
}

answered Jul 20, 2012 at 16:30

Jon

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L.B · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-20 17:09:49Z

0

var person = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Person>(json);

class Person
{
    [JsonProperty("StreetAddress")]
    private string _StreetAddress { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty("City")]
    private string _City { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty("Zip")]
    private string _ZipCode { get; set; }

    public string Name { get; set; }

    public Address Address
    {
        get
        {
            return new Address() { City = _City, StreetAddress = _StreetAddress, ZipCode = _ZipCode };
        }
    }
}

class Address
{
    public string StreetAddress { get; set; }
    public string City { get; set; }
    public string ZipCode { get; set; }
}

answered Jul 20, 2012 at 17:09

L.B

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