Error while deserializing json string into collection

Question

I have json string like below

"{\"Key\":3296,\"Value1\":\"Test1\",\"Value2\":\"City\",\"Value3\":\"TX\",\"Value4\":null,\"Value5\":null,\"Value6\":null}{\"Key\":3297,\"Value1\":\"Test2\",\"Value2\":\"PUD\",\"Value3\":\"TX\",\"Value4\":null,\"Value5\":null,\"Value6\":null}"

and corresponding C# class

public class MyObject
{
    public int Key { get; set; }
    public string Value1 { get; set; }
    public string Value2 { get; set; }
    public string Value3 { get; set; }
    public string Value4 { get; set; }
    public string Value5 { get; set; }
    public string Value6 { get; set; }
}

when i try to deserialize this string using Newtonsoft i get error

{"Cannot deserialize the current JSON object (e.g. {\"name\":\"value\"}) into type 'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1[MyObject]' because the type requires a JSON array (e.g. [1,2,3]) to deserialize correctly.\r\nTo fix this error either change the JSON to a JSON array (e.g. [1,2,3]) or change the deserialized type so that it is a normal .NET type (e.g. not a primitive type like integer, not a collection type like an array or List) that can be deserialized from a JSON object. JsonObjectAttribute can also be added to the type to force it to deserialize from a JSON object.\r\nPath 'Key', line 1, position 7."}

I know that the string is not well formatted for json array. This is how i m getting the string and i dont have control over it.

What would be a best option here to convet that string into IEnumerable of MyObject. The string can have one object also.

Your JSON string is not valid as it consists of two separate objects just sitting next to each other, like `{object1}{object2}`. You should put those into an array so it becomes `[{object1}, {object2}]` — James, Oct 19 '17 at 16:53
as i said, i understand its not well formed. But that is how i receiving it — LP13, Oct 19 '17 at 17:23
Well, if the string is always a list of simple objects (with no nesting) you can probably replace all instances of `}{` with `},{`, wrap it in square brackets and you have a valid JSON string which you can deserialize w Newtonsoft. If the string contains any curly braces within quotes, or nesting, you have a much more difficult task, and I would suggest having the folks who send you the string *fix it to be valid JSON* (which IMO should be your first approach). — James, Oct 19 '17 at 17:41
Looks like a duplicate of [What is the correct way to use JSON.NET to parse stream of JSON objects?](https://stackoverflow.com/q/26601594) or [Best ways to split a string with matching curly braces](https://stackoverflow.com/a/38429174/3744182) or [Line delimited json serializing and de-serializing](https://stackoverflow.com/q/29729063/3744182) or [Parsing large json file in .NET](https://stackoverflow.com/q/32227436/3744182). — dbc, Oct 19 '17 at 21:03

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 19 '17 at 20:28

Per James's answer (I'm sure you have figured this out but here it is). This should work with only 1 object as well:

string json = <your string here>;
json = "[" + json;
json = json.Replace("}{", "},{");
json += "]";

Not sure off-hand if there's a built-in way to do this in json.net.

Error while deserializing json string into collection

1 Answers1