C# JSON - How to get value Inside Nested Object to List

Question

I am new to C#. I am trying to convert the JSON string into a list looks like this:

firstName   lastName  departmentID
John        Doe       AAA111
John2       Doe2      BBB222

Updated Post - based on David's answer (Thank you for that). Sorry for all the confusion I might have caused.

Here is the code:

public IActionResult JsonTest()
{

    var respJSON = @"
        [
              {
                ""firstName"": ""John"",
                ""lastName"": ""Doe"",
                ""departmentID"": { ""id"": ""AAA111"" },
              },
              {
                ""firstName"": ""John2"",
                ""lastName"": ""Doe2"",
                ""departmentID"": { ""id"": ""BBB222"" }
              }
          ]
        ";

    List<UserNameWithDept> user = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<UserNameWithDept>>(respJSON);

    return Ok();
}


public class Identifier
{
    [JsonProperty("id")]
    public string Id { get; set; }
}

public class UserNameWithDept
{
    [JsonProperty("firstName")]
    public string FirstName { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty("lastName")]
    public string LastName { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty("departmentID")]
    public Identifier Department { get; set; }
}

I am getting the Department as an object, then value inside it.

How can I get the list look this? Department has value, no an object.

Department  "AAA111"
FirstName   "John"
LastName    "Doe"

Answer 1

Based on a comment on the question above:

I cannot modify JSON data. I am looking for away to modify the model or somehow get that departmentID value into that model.

Then simply modify the structure to match the data. This currently expects departmentID to be a string:

public class UserNameWithDept
{
    public string firstName { get; set; }
    public string lastName { get; set; }
    public string departmentID { get; set; }
}

But is the data a string? Nope:

{
  "firstName": "John",
  "lastName": "Doe",
  "departmentID": { "id": "AAA111" }
}

The departmentID value is an object with a property (called id) and that is a string. So match that in your object structure:

public class Identifier
{
    public string id { get; set; }
}

public class UserNameWithDept
{
    public string firstName { get; set; }
    public string lastName { get; set; }
    public Identifier departmentID { get; set; }
}

Then you can deserialize the data into that structure the same way you currently do.

---

Edit: This comment below is worth calling attention to. Naming conventions can be important as the code grows in complexity, as they help readers quickly understand the code. To that end, property names in C# should be capitalized.

You can make use of the JsonProperty attribute to indicate the corresponding property name in the data when it doesn't match what's in the structure. For example:

public class Identifier
{
    [JsonProperty("id")]
    public string Id { get; set; }
}

public class UserNameWithDept
{
    [JsonProperty("firstName")]
    public string FirstName { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty("lastName")]
    public string LastName { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty("departmentID")]
    public Identifier Department { get; set; }
}

Note also that the peoperty on UserNameWithDept was changed to simply Department. Consider the code which would reference this property. It would be redundant to indicate "id" twice to reference an identifier. This also suggests that the object used could perhaps someday hold more than just an identifier.

Naming gets very subjective very quickly, so these are just suggestions but ultimately it's up to you what names intuitively make sense in your application. And it's worth taking time to do that as poorly-named variables/properties/classes/etc. are a very common source of bugs.