c# JavaScriptSerializer on JSON containing string + dictionary

Question

May i know how to parsing the JSON stated as below..... the JSON is part of Yahoo OAuth Contacts list.

JSON:

"fields":[{                 
                "id":2,
                "type":"nickname",
                "value":"Hello"
            },
            {
                "id":3,
                "type":"email",
                "value":"MyTesting@hotmail.com"
            },
            {       
                "id":1,
                "type":"name",
                "value":{
                    "givenName":"Otopass",  
                    "middleName":"Test",
                    "familyName":"Hotmail"
                    },
            }],

C# object :

    private class fields 
    {
        public string id { get; set; }
        public string type { get; set; }
        //public string value { get; set; }                        //Stuck At Here !!!!
        //public Dictionary<string, string> value { get; set; }    //Stuck At Here !!!!
    }

How to parse the "value"?? since it's combination type of String & Dictionary.

Check out similar question http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6416950/serializing-dictionaries-with-javascriptserializer — Ondrej Svejdar, Jun 04 '13 at 17:23
I don't know much about parsing json, but I can tell you that you can't have two fields in the same class with the same name, so having both a string and Dictionary named value in your fields class is going to throw a compiler error. — Blake Hood, Jun 04 '13 at 17:24
You may want to look into a JSON deserializer that supports the `dynamic` type. — wgraham, Jun 04 '13 at 17:30

I4V · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-04T17:40:11.573

I can't answer it using JavaScriptSerializer but you can do it using json.Net and Linq

var jObj = JObject.Parse(json);
var fields = jObj["fields"]
                .Select(x => new Field
                {
                    Id = (int)x["id"],
                    Type = (string)x["type"],
                    Value = x["value"] is JValue 
                            ? new Dictionary<string,string>(){{"",(string)x["value"]}}
                            : x["value"].Children()
                                        .Cast<JProperty>()
                                        .ToDictionary(p => p.Name, p => (string)p.Value)
                })
                .ToList();


private class Field
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Type { get; set; }
    public Dictionary<string, string> Value { get; set; }    
}

PS: I fixed your partial json string as

string json = 
@"{""fields"":[
    {                 
        ""id"":2,
        ""type"":""nickname"",
        ""value"":""Hello""
    },
    {
        ""id"":3,
        ""type"":""email"",
        ""value"":""MyTesting@hotmail.com""
    },
    {       
        ""id"":1,
        ""type"":""name"",
        ""value"":{
            ""givenName"":""Otopass"",  
            ""middleName"":""Test"",
            ""familyName"":""Hotmail""
            }
    }
]}";

oh.. Thanks... I trying it right now. Is `jObj = Newtonsoft.Json.Linq` ??? It doesn't contain a definition for `Select` — user2402624, Jun 04 '13 at 17:50
@user2402624 All you need is `using Newtonsoft.Json;` and `using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;` — I4V, Jun 04 '13 at 18:00
Great!! I do some modification on your code and it's work for me... Thank you. — user2402624, Jun 05 '13 at 03:54

c# JavaScriptSerializer on JSON containing string + dictionary

1 Answers1