How can I parse JSON with C#?

I have the following code:

var user = (Dictionary<string, object>)serializer.DeserializeObject(responsecontent);

The input in responsecontent is JSON, but it is not properly parsed into an object. How should I properly deserialize it?

I am assuming you are not using Json.NET (Newtonsoft.Json NuGet package). If this the case, then you should try it.

It has the following features:

1. LINQ to JSON
2. The JsonSerializer for quickly converting your .NET objects to JSON and back again
3. Json.NET can optionally produce well formatted, indented JSON for debugging or display
4. Attributes like JsonIgnore and JsonProperty can be added to a class to customize how a class is serialized
5. Ability to convert JSON to and from XML
6. Supports multiple platforms: .NET, Silverlight and the Compact Framework

Look at the example below. In this example, JsonConvert class is used to convert an object to and from JSON. It has two static methods for this purpose. They are SerializeObject(Object obj) and DeserializeObject<T>(String json):

using Newtonsoft.Json;

Product product = new Product();
product.Name = "Apple";
product.Expiry = new DateTime(2008, 12, 28);
product.Price = 3.99M;
product.Sizes = new string[] { "Small", "Medium", "Large" };

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(product);
//{
//  "Name": "Apple",
//  "Expiry": "2008-12-28T00:00:00",
//  "Price": 3.99,
//  "Sizes": [
//    "Small",
//    "Medium",
//    "Large"
//  ]
//}

Product deserializedProduct = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Product>(json);

As was answered here - Deserialize JSON into C# dynamic object?

It's pretty simple using Json.NET:

dynamic stuff = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject("{ 'Name': 'Jon Smith', 'Address': { 'City': 'New York', 'State': 'NY' }, 'Age': 42 }");

string name = stuff.Name;
string address = stuff.Address.City;

Or using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq :

dynamic stuff = JObject.Parse("{ 'Name': 'Jon Smith', 'Address': { 'City': 'New York', 'State': 'NY' }, 'Age': 42 }");

string name = stuff.Name;
string address = stuff.Address.City;

Here are some options without using third party libraries:

// For that you will need to add reference to System.Runtime.Serialization
var jsonReader = JsonReaderWriterFactory.CreateJsonReader(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(@"{ ""Name"": ""Jon Smith"", ""Address"": { ""City"": ""New York"", ""State"": ""NY"" }, ""Age"": 42 }"), new System.Xml.XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas());

// For that you will need to add reference to System.Xml and System.Xml.Linq
var root = XElement.Load(jsonReader);
Console.WriteLine(root.XPathSelectElement("//Name").Value);
Console.WriteLine(root.XPathSelectElement("//Address/State").Value);

// For that you will need to add reference to System.Web.Helpers
dynamic json = System.Web.Helpers.Json.Decode(@"{ ""Name"": ""Jon Smith"", ""Address"": { ""City"": ""New York"", ""State"": ""NY"" }, ""Age"": 42 }");
Console.WriteLine(json.Name);
Console.WriteLine(json.Address.State);

See the link for more information about System.Web.Helpers.Json.

Update: Nowadays the easiest way to get the Web.Helpers is to use the NuGet package.

---

If you don't care about earlier windows versions you can use the classes of the Windows.Data.Json namespace:

// minimum supported version: Win 8
JsonObject root = Windows.Data.Json.JsonValue.Parse(jsonString).GetObject();
Console.WriteLine(root["Name"].GetString());
Console.WriteLine(root["Address"].GetObject()["State"].GetString());

If .NET 4 is available to you, check out: http://visitmix.com/writings/the-rise-of-json (archive.org)

Here is a snippet from that site:

WebClient webClient = new WebClient();
dynamic result = JsonValue.Parse(webClient.DownloadString("https://api.foursquare.com/v2/users/self?oauth_token=XXXXXXX"));
Console.WriteLine(result.response.user.firstName);

That last Console.WriteLine is pretty sweet...

Another native solution to this, which doesn't require any 3rd party libraries but a reference to System.Web.Extensions is the JavaScriptSerializer. This is not a new but a very unknown built-in features there since 3.5.

using System.Web.Script.Serialization;

..

JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
objectString = serializer.Serialize(new MyObject());

and back

MyObject o = serializer.Deserialize<MyObject>(objectString)

System.Text.Json

.NET core 3.0 comes with System.Text.Json built-in which means you can deserialize/serialize JSON without using a third-party library.

Serialize/Deserialize

To serialize your class(es) to JSON string:

var json = JsonSerializer.Serialize(model);

To deserialize the JSON into a strongly typed class:

var model = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Model>(json);

---

Parse (.NET 6)

.NET 6 introduced the System.Text.Json.Nodes namespace which enables DOM parsing, navigation and manipulation in a similar manner to Newtonsoft.Json using the new classes JsonObject, JsonArray, JsonValue, and JsonNode.

// JsonObject parse DOM
var jsonObject = JsonNode.Parse(jsonString).AsObject();
// read data from DOM
string name = jsonObject["Name"].ToString();
DateTime date = (DateTime)jsonObject["Date"];
var people = jsonObject["People"].Deserialize<List<Person>>();

Similar methods apply to JsonArray. This answer provides more details on JsonObject.

---

One thing to note is that System.Text.Json does not automatically handle camelCase JSON properties when using your own code (however, it does when using MVC/WebAPI requests and the model binder).

To resolve this you need to pass JsonSerializerOptions as a parameter.

JsonSerializerOptions options = new JsonSerializerOptions
{        
    PropertyNamingPolicy = JsonNamingPolicy.CamelCase,  // set camelCase       
    WriteIndented = true                                // write pretty json
};

// pass options to serializer
var json = JsonSerializer.Serialize(order, options);
// pass options to deserializer
var order = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Order>(json, options);

System.Text.Json is also available for .Net Framework and .Net Standard as a Nu-get package System.Text.Json

You could also have a look at the DataContractJsonSerializer

System.Json works now...

Install nuget https://www.nuget.org/packages/System.Json

PM> Install-Package System.Json -Version 4.5.0

Sample:

// PM>Install-Package System.Json -Version 4.5.0

using System;
using System.Json;

namespace NetCoreTestConsoleApp
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Note that JSON keys are case sensitive, a is not same as A.

            // JSON Sample
            string jsonString = "{\"a\": 1,\"b\": \"string value\",\"c\":[{\"Value\": 1}, {\"Value\": 2,\"SubObject\":[{\"SubValue\":3}]}]}";

            // You can use the following line in a beautifier/JSON formatted for better view
            // {"a": 1,"b": "string value","c":[{"Value": 1}, {"Value": 2,"SubObject":[{"SubValue":3}]}]}

            /* Formatted jsonString for viewing purposes:
            {
               "a":1,
               "b":"string value",
               "c":[
                  {
                     "Value":1
                  },
                  {
                     "Value":2,
                     "SubObject":[
                        {
                           "SubValue":3
                        }
                     ]
                  }
               ]
            }
            */

            // Verify your JSON if you get any errors here
            JsonValue json = JsonValue.Parse(jsonString);

            // int test
            if (json.ContainsKey("a"))
            {
                int a = json["a"]; // type already set to int
                Console.WriteLine("json[\"a\"]" + " = " + a);
            }

            // string test
            if (json.ContainsKey("b"))
            {
                string b = json["b"];  // type already set to string
                Console.WriteLine("json[\"b\"]" + " = " + b);
            }

            // object array test
            if (json.ContainsKey("c") && json["c"].JsonType == JsonType.Array)
            {
                // foreach loop test
                foreach (JsonValue j in json["c"])
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("j[\"Value\"]" + " = " + j["Value"].ToString());
                }

                // multi level key test
                Console.WriteLine("json[\"c\"][0][\"Value\"]" + " = " + json["c"][0]["Value"].ToString());
                Console.WriteLine("json[\"c\"][0][\"Value\"]" + " = " + json["c"][1]["Value"].ToString());
                Console.WriteLine("json[\"c\"][1][\"SubObject\"][0][\"SubValue\"]" + " = " + json["c"][1]["SubObject"][0]["SubValue"].ToString());
            }

            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.Write("Press any key to exit.");
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

Use this tool to generate a class based in your json:

http://json2csharp.com/

And then use the class to deserialize your json. Example:

public class Account
{
    public string Email { get; set; }
    public bool Active { get; set; }
    public DateTime CreatedDate { get; set; }
    public IList<string> Roles { get; set; }
}


string json = @"{
  'Email': '[email protected]',
  'Active': true,
  'CreatedDate': '2013-01-20T00:00:00Z',
  'Roles': [
    'User',
    'Admin'
  ]
}";

Account account = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Account>(json);

Console.WriteLine(account.Email);
// [email protected]

References: https://forums.asp.net/t/1992996.aspx?Nested+Json+Deserialization+to+C+object+and+using+that+object https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/DeserializeObject.htm

Try the following code:

HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("URL");
JArray array = new JArray();
using (var twitpicResponse = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse())
using (var reader = new StreamReader(twitpicResponse.GetResponseStream()))
{
    JavaScriptSerializer js = new JavaScriptSerializer();
    var objText = reader.ReadToEnd();

    JObject joResponse = JObject.Parse(objText);
    JObject result = (JObject)joResponse["result"];
    array = (JArray)result["Detail"];
    string statu = array[0]["dlrStat"].ToString();
}

If JSON is dynamic as below

{
 "Items": [{
		"Name": "Apple",
		"Price": 12.3
	},
	{
		"Name": "Grape",
		"Price": 3.21
	}
   ],
   "Date": "21/11/2010"
}

Then, Once you install NewtonSoft.Json from NuGet and include it in your project, you can serialize it as

string jsonString = "{\"Items\": [{\"Name\": \"Apple\",\"Price\": 12.3},{\"Name\": \"Grape\",\"Price\": 3.21}],\"Date\": \"21/11/2010\"}";

        dynamic DynamicData = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(jsonString);

        Console.WriteLine(   DynamicData.Date); // "21/11/2010"
        Console.WriteLine(DynamicData.Items.Count); // 2
        Console.WriteLine(DynamicData.Items[0].Name); // "Apple"

Source: How to read JSON data in C# (Example using Console app & ASP.NET MVC)?

The following from the msdn site should I think help provide some native functionality for what you are looking for. Please note it is specified for Windows 8. One such example from the site is listed below.

JsonValue jsonValue = JsonValue.Parse("{\"Width\": 800, \"Height\": 600, \"Title\": \"View from 15th Floor\", \"IDs\": [116, 943, 234, 38793]}");
double width = jsonValue.GetObject().GetNamedNumber("Width");
double height = jsonValue.GetObject().GetNamedNumber("Height");
string title = jsonValue.GetObject().GetNamedString("Title");
JsonArray ids = jsonValue.GetObject().GetNamedArray("IDs");

It utilizes the Windows.Data.JSON namespace.

You can use following extentions

public static class JsonExtensions
{
    public static T ToObject<T>(this string jsonText)
    {
        return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(jsonText);
    }
     
    public static string ToJson<T>(this T obj)
    {
        return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj);
    } 
}

I think the best answer that I've seen has been @MD_Sayem_Ahmed.

Your question is "How can I parse Json with C#", but it seems like you are wanting to decode Json. If you are wanting to decode it, Ahmed's answer is good.

If you are trying to accomplish this in ASP.NET Web Api, the easiest way is to create a data transfer object that holds the data you want to assign:

public class MyDto{
    public string Name{get; set;}
    public string Value{get; set;}
}

You have simply add the application/json header to your request (if you are using Fiddler, for example). You would then use this in ASP.NET Web API as follows:

//controller method -- assuming you want to post and return data
public MyDto Post([FromBody] MyDto myDto){
   MyDto someDto = myDto;
   /*ASP.NET automatically converts the data for you into this object 
    if you post a json object as follows:
{
    "Name": "SomeName",
	  "Value": "SomeValue"
}
*/
   //do some stuff
}

This helped me a lot when I was working in my Web Api and made my life super easy.

         string json = @"{
            'Name': 'Wide Web',
            'Url': 'www.wideweb.com.br'}";

        JavaScriptSerializer jsonSerializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
        dynamic j = jsonSerializer.Deserialize<dynamic>(json);
        string name = j["Name"].ToString();
        string url = j["Url"].ToString();

var result = controller.ActioName(objParams);
IDictionary<string, object> data = (IDictionary<string, object>)new System.Web.Routing.RouteValueDictionary(result.Data);
Assert.AreEqual("Table already exists.", data["Message"]);

 using (var ms = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(user)))
 {
    // Deserialization from JSON  
    DataContractJsonSerializer deserializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(UserListing))
    DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(UserListing));
    UserListing response = (UserListing)deserializer.ReadObject(ms);
          
 }

 public class UserListing
 {
    public List<UserList> users { get; set; }      
 }

 public class UserList
 {
    public string FirstName { get; set; }       
    public string LastName { get; set; } 
 }