How to Deserialize a JSON array in List (C#)

Question

I am struggling with a subject that has a lot of variants in this forum but I can't seem to find one that suits me, and I think it's because of the way that my JSON array is :( I'm not an expert but I already manage to "almost" get the end... I need to get hand in "Success" and "Status" value. But also the different "Addresses".

My JSON (is called responseFromServer):

{
  "success":true,
  "addresses":
  [
   {"DPID":658584,"SourceDesc":"Postal\\Physical","FullAddress":"1/8 Jonas Street, Waimataitai, Timaru 7910"},
   {"DPID":658585,"SourceDesc":"Postal\\Physical","FullAddress":"2/8 Jonas Street, Waimataitai, Timaru 7910"},
   {"DPID":658583,"SourceDesc":"Postal\\Physical","FullAddress":"3/8 Jonas Street, Waimataitai, Timaru 7910"}
  ],
 "status":"success"
}

Then, based on lot of examples in this forum, taking bits and pieces I created my classes:

public class jsonDataTable
{
    public bool success { get; set; }
    public IEnumerable<dtaddresses> addresses { get; set; }
    public string status { get; set; }
}

public class dtaddresses 
{
    public int DPID { get; set; }
    public string SourceDesc { get; set; }
    public string FullAddress { get; set; }
}

Then I'm going to Deserialize:

public void _form_OnCallingAction(object sender, ActionEventArgs e)
{
 ...
 ...
 JavaScriptSerializer js = new JavaScriptSerializer();
 jsonDataTable jsonArray = js.Deserialize<jsonDataTable>(responseFromServer);
 ...
 string tb = jsonArray.status.ToString();
 string tb2 = jsonArray.success.ToString();
 ...
 ...
 List<dtaddresses> _listAddresses = new List<dtaddresses>
 {
  new dtaddresses()
 };
 ...
 ...
 try
 {
  string tb3 = _listAddresses.Count.ToString();
  string tb4 = _listAddresses[0].FullAddress;
 }
 catch (Exception ex)
 {
  CurrentContext.Message.Display(ex.Message + ex.StackTrace);
 }
...
...
...
 CurrentContext.Message.Display("Raw Response from server is: {0}", responseFromServer);
 //Returns all the content in a string to check. OK! :)

 CurrentContext.Message.Display("The success value is: {0} ", tb);
 //Returns the Status Value (in this case "success")  OK! :)

 CurrentContext.Message.Display("The status value is: {0} ", tb2);
 //Returns the Success Value (in this case "true")  giggity giggity! All Right! :)

 CurrentContext.Message.Display("The n. of addresses is: {0} ", tb3);
 //Returns how many addresses ( in this case is returning 0) not ok... :(

 CurrentContext.Message.Display("The address value is: {0} ", tb4);
 // Returns the Fulladdress in index 0 (in this case nothing...) not ok... :(

Can any one help me to understand why I can access the values in the "dtaddresses" class? This is the far that I went...

Answer 1

The following piece of code I copied from your question is creating a brand new list that has nothing to do with your deserialized data. Thus it's always going to be a single element list, where the first element contains only default values, which is what you are seeing in tb3 and tb4 later on.

List<dtaddresses> _listAddresses = new List<dtaddresses>
{
 new dtaddresses()
};

Instead, assign jsonArray.addresses to _listAddresses, such as:

List<dtaddresses> _listAddresses = jsonArray.addresses.ToList() 

Or you can forget about _listAddresses completely, and just simply reference jsonArray.addresses directly, such as:

string tb3 = jsonArray.addresses.Count().ToString();
string tb4 = jsonArray.addresses.First().FullAddress;