Deserialize JSON object structure with ids as keys

Question

I have this JSON that is generated by a third party web service

{
  "user_data": {
    "123456789": {
      "transactions_id": 123456789,
      "transaction_date": "2015-07-08T18:31:28+01:00",
      "reason_type": "REWARD",
      "category": "categoryFoo",
      "title": "titleFoo",
      "description": "",
      "reward_quantity": 5,
      "reward_name": " foo"
    },
    "1234567891": {
      "transactions_id": 1234567891,
      "transaction_date": "2015-07-08T18:33:06+01:00",
      "reason_type": "REWARD",
      "category": "categoryFoo",
      "title": "titleFoo",
      "description": "",
      "reward_quantity": 5,
      "reward_name": " foo"
    },
    "1234567892": {
      "transactions_id": 1234567892,
      "transaction_date": "2015-07-08T18:35:00+01:00",
      "reason_type": "REWARD",
      "category": "categoryFoo",
      "title": "titleFoo",
      "description": "",
      "reward_quantity": 5,
      "issuers_name": " foo"
    }
  }
}

The amount of transactions will change with each request so there may be 3 like this one time and then 10 the next. To handle the varying numbers of transactions I understand that you would need to use a list similar to this public List<User> users { get; set; } with users being similar to this

public class User
{
    public int transactions_id { get; set; }
    public string transaction_date { get; set; }
    public string reason_type { get; set; }
    public string category { get; set; }
    public string title { get; set; }
    public string description { get; set; }
    public int reward_quantity { get; set; }
    public string reward_name { get; set; }
}

However I do think this will work because of the weird structure of the JSON where each "transaction" has it ID as its name. Sorry I'm not sure of the correct terminology but I think you should be able to get the gist.

Use `public Dictionary user_data { get; set; }`. Or `public Dictionary user_data { get; set; }` if the ID is not always numeric. — dbc, Sep 13 '15 at 18:00

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 13 '15 at 18:02

This isn't a particularly unusual structure in JSON. That should be deserialized to a Dictionary<string, User>:

public class Root
{
    [JsonProperty("user_data")]
    public Dictionary<string, User> Users { get; set; }
}

Then just use JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Root> as normal.

Note how I'm using JsonProperty to specify how the name is represented in JSON while keeping idiomatic .NET property names - I suggest you do that in your User class too.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 13 '15 at 18:02

1

public class UserData
{
    [JsonProperty("user_data")]
    public Dictionary<string, User> Users { get; set; }
}

answered Sep 13 '15 at 18:02

btlog

4,760
2
29
38

Deserialize JSON object structure with ids as keys

2 Answers2