How to deserialize complex JSON with dynamic keys in asp.net core?

Question

I have this complex JSON that looks like:

{
    "results": [
        {
            "statement_id": 0,
            "series": [
                {
                    "name": "test-name",
                    "tags": {
                        "tag1": "0"
                        "tag2": "1"
                    },
                    "columns": [
                        "time",
                        "mean"
                    ],
                    "values": [
                        [
                            "2018-12-03T10:18:37.3Z",
                            0
                        ]
                    ]
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

The POCO for the above is like:

public class Tags
{
    public string tag1 { get; set; }
    public string tag2 { get; set; }
}

public class Series
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public Tags tags { get; set; }
    public List<string> columns { get; set; }
    public List<List<object>> values { get; set; }
}

public class Result
{
    public int statement_id { get; set; }
    public List<Series> series { get; set; }
}

public class RootObject
{
    public List<Result> results { get; set; }
}

The problem is, properties in Tags class are dynamic. There can be just one tag, 2 or more which is only determined at runtime.

I'm trying to use Newtonsoft.Json to parse this to a nested dictionary like Dictionary<string, <Dictionary<string, object[]>>> where the keys of the dictionaries are values of tags and the object[] contains the list of values (just the value, not the timestamp).

Can you getting rid of the Tags class and instead add this as a property for the Tags? public IDictionary<string, JToken> Tags { get; set; } — bit
– bit, Commented Dec 11, 2018 at 5:01

Anu Viswan · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-11 07:18:57Z

2

You should possibly use Dictionary instead of a Tag Class.

[JsonExtensionData]
public Dictionary<string,object> Tags{get;set;}

For example,

public class JsonSample
{
[JsonExtensionData]
public Dictionary<string,object> RandomKeyValuePair {get;set;}
}

// Sample Code
var jsonString = @"
{
'Key1' : 'some value 1',
'Key2' : 'some value 1',
'Key3' : 'some value 1',
'Key4' : 'some value 1',
}";



var jsonSampleObject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<JsonSample>(jsonString);

Update

Modified Series Class

public class Series
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    [JsonExtensionData]
    public IDictionary<string,JToken> tags { get; set; }
    public List<string> columns { get; set; }
    public List<List<object>> values { get; set; }
}

Client Call

var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(str);
Console.WriteLine(String.Join(",",result.results.First().series.First().tags.Select(x=>$"{x.Key}={x.Value},")));

Output

tags={
  "tag1": "0",
  "tag2": "1"
},

Please note there is an error in your Json. "," is missing after "tag1": "0"

edited Dec 11, 2018 at 7:18

answered Dec 11, 2018 at 5:02

Anu Viswan

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4 Comments

kovac Over a year ago

How is this different from a simple JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<IDictionary<string, object>>(json)? can't see how this helps me.

Anu Viswan Over a year ago

Consider a more complex data type than shown in example, perhaps something like yours. In that scenario too this would work.

kovac Over a year ago

Can you show me how you would do this with my json schema rather than this simplistic example you've shown?

Anu Viswan Over a year ago

@swdon I have updated the answer with sample code with your data structure

er-sho · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-11 06:01:45Z

0

Only change your tags property datatype in Series class from

public Tags tags { get; set; }

To

public Dictionary<string, JToken> tags { get; set; }

And then you will be able to parse dynamic key tags from your json.

So your Series class will be.

public class Series
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public Dictionary<string, JToken> tags { get; set; }
    public List<string> columns { get; set; }
    public List<List<object>> values { get; set; }
}

edited Dec 11, 2018 at 6:01

answered Dec 11, 2018 at 5:56

er-sho

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