Custom Deserialization using Newtonsoft.json

Question

I am trying to deserialize a json for my class structure

I have the following JSON:

{
    "Main": {
        "Employees": {
            "0": {
                "FirstName": "Test ",
                "LastName": "One"
            },
            "1": {
                "FirstName": "Test ",
                "LastName": "Two"
            }
        }
    }
}

I want to deserialize it for the following class structure:

public class Main
{
    public List<Employee> Employees { get; set; }
}

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

Can someone suggest me how to write a converter for this/ any other option to achieve this?

If possible try to change the json format?... If employees is a collection shouldn't it be represented as one? Good design = (can lead to) good code. Bad design.....not.. — Gilad Green
– Gilad Green, Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 13:48
I realise that you probably didn't design the JSON, but can I vote that we find whoever did design that layout, and teach them the error of their ways? — Marc Gravell
– Marc Gravell, Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 13:49
In Json, An arry or list is respresented as [], [ elements ] With values separated by comas. — Drag and Drop
– Drag and Drop, Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 13:50
We are using this to feed to google visualization, the api expects this kind of json input. Serializing is fine, i can do deserilization as well, just looking for a simpler/ cleaner approach — Siddhannt Arora
– Siddhannt Arora, Commented Dec 22, 2017 at 14:11

Marc Gravell · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-21 13:58:35Z

1

Obviously the ideal thing would be to have different JSON to work from (an array), but that might not be possible.

This doesn't use the custom deserialization options, but - it works:

dynamic root = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json);
Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JObject emps = root.Main.Employees;
var list = new List<Employee>();
foreach(var child in emps.Properties())
{
    list.Add(child.Value.ToObject<Employee>());
}

answered Dec 21, 2017 at 13:58

Marc Gravell

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Comments

Adam Brown · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-21 13:53:26Z

0

Your JSON is kind of wrong. You've made an employees type with fields 0 and 1 that happen to both have the same sub-properties. I think what you're actually looking to do is to make Employees an array.

{
"Main" : {
    "Employees": [
        {
            "FirstName": "Test ",
            "LastName": "One"
        },
        {
            "FirstName": "Test ",
            "LastName": "Two"
        }]
    }
}

answered Dec 21, 2017 at 13:53

Adam Brown

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1 Comment

Siddhannt Arora Over a year ago

No its as per requirement, while serializing i intentionally added the list index as the node, i am able to serialize, i want to have a functionality to deserialize the same.

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