JSON.NET Array conversion

Question

I am trying to convert a JSON array to a C# dictionary. My Box class has "id" and "color" properties.

{
   "boxes" [
       {"id":0, "color":"red"},
       {"id":1, "color":"green"},
       {"id":2, "color":"blue"}
   ]
}

I've tried a few things, but haven't had any luck getting this to work yet.

List<Box> jsonResponse = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<Box>>(File.ReadAllText(filePath));

Does it work for you if you simply do JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<int, string>>(boxes) ? — Fabjan
– Fabjan, Commented Jan 27, 2019 at 13:00
This is syntactically invalid. { "boxes": [ .. ] } would be correct. — Jeroen Mostert
– Jeroen Mostert, Commented Jan 27, 2019 at 13:00
Good point @JeroenMostert, edited. This is a trimmed down version of what I'm using, and I missed that part. — james.sw.clark
– james.sw.clark, Commented Jan 27, 2019 at 13:15
@Fabjan "To fix this error either change the JSON to a JSON object (e.g. {"name":"value"}) or change the deserialized type to an array or a type that implements a collection interface (e.g. ICollection, IList) like List<T> that can be deserialized from a JSON array. " I've decided to add a function for list -> dictionary. — james.sw.clark
– james.sw.clark, Commented Jan 27, 2019 at 13:19
@Idios I've updated my answer according to scenario that you work with — Fabjan
– Fabjan, Commented Jan 27, 2019 at 13:25

Fabjan · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-27 15:56:13Z

1

Well the thing is that your Dictionary is in nested property. And even more - it's not really a dictionary. It is an array of objects where each object consists of two fields - id and color (whereas in dictionary we have key-value pairs).

You could deserialize your json into anonymous object with correct structure and then get the array of boxes out of it and convert it to dictionary:

var box = new { id = 0, name = "" };
var jsonObj = new { boxes = new[] { box } };

var dict = JsonConvert.DeserializeAnonymousType(myJson, jsonObj).boxes
                                 .ToDictionary(b => b.id, b => b.name);

edited Jan 27, 2019 at 15:56

answered Jan 27, 2019 at 13:03

Fabjan

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james.sw.clark · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-27 12:54:42Z

0

JSON doesn't need {} at the top level - so you can just have your list of items in {}'s surrounded by [].

[
    {"id":0, "color":"red"},
    {"id":1, "color":"green"},
    {"id":2, "color":"blue"}
]

answered Jan 27, 2019 at 12:54

james.sw.clark

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