How to Parse JSON data which is not in a "name:value" format?

Question

I am receiving some JSON data which is not in a "name:value" pair but its something like this:

[[\"ManagerID\",\"EmployeeID\",\"Domain\"],[\"2\",\"110\",\"BBU\"]]

I am not able to parse this data using JsonConvert.DeserializeObject as I get an error

"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 that can be deserialized from a JSON array. JsonArrayAttribute can also be added to the type to force it to deserialize from a JSON array. Path '', line 1, position 1."

I am using Visual Studio 2008 and .net framework 3.5. Let me know in case you need more clarification.

Well I am receiving the above data in a string as it is the way returned by the web service. So what I want to do is parse the above mentioned string and store it in a List. — Ray
– Ray, Commented Feb 19, 2014 at 12:00

ZoolWay · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-19 12:06:21Z

2

Lets assume your object is of this class:

class MyObject
{
    public int ManagerID { get; set; }
    public int EmployeeID { get; set; }
    public string Domain { get; set, }
}

Then your JSON does not match it, your JSON should look like:

{"ManagerID": 2, "EmployeeID": 110, "Domain": "BBS"}

If you really want to read the above JSON you need:

JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<string[][]>(yourString);

Tried

Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<string[][]>("[[\"ManagerID\",\"EmployeeID\",\"Domain\"],[\"2\",\"110\",\"BBU\"]]")

But that is not a handy structure...

answered Feb 19, 2014 at 12:06

ZoolWay

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5 Comments

Ray Over a year ago

Hey Thanks a ton! Really appreciate your quick response. Was stuck with this thing for hours. And yes the JSON is not in a correct format but that's what WebService returns and its not under my control.

Ray Over a year ago

Just a quick question. How do I populate the data to List<MyObject> directly?

ZoolWay Over a year ago

How does the data provided by the WebService look like when it has more than one record/entry?

Ray Over a year ago

Something like this: [[\"ManagerID\",\"EmployeeID\",\"Domain\"],[\"2\",\"110\",\"BBU\"]],[\"5\",\"150\",\"SBU\"]] where the first row defines the ColumnNames and the rest of the rows are actual data.

ZoolWay Over a year ago

I see. Unforunately you will have to do this with a small loop by yourself. Like

for (int i = 1; i < array.GetLength(0); i++) { myList.Add(new MyObject() { ManagerID = Convert.ToInt32(array[i][0]), .. });

Maybe you will have to parse the column names instead if using fixed indices, maybe you have to expect conversion errors and handle them. You must know ;)

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