How can I serialize an object and give it an identifier

Question

I'm using newtonsoft.json to (de)serialize json files. I want to seperate my users in a json file currently my json file is something like this :

[
  {
    "name": "examplename",
    "inviteID": "",
    "inviteCount": "",
    "invited": ""
  },
  {
    "name": "examplename2",
    "inviteID": "",
    "inviteCount": "",
    "invited": ""
  }
]

However I want to give them identifiers like this :

    [
      "namehere"[
      {      
        "inviteID": "",
        "inviteCount": "",
        "invited": ""
      }
]

I want this to find users easier and not having to loop through every user till I find the right one.. Current code :

 if(foundinviter == false)
                {
                    User theuser = new User
                    {
                        name = inviterUsername,
                        inviteID = inviteID,
                        inviteCount = inviteCount.ToString(),
                        invited = invited
                    };
                    userslist.Add(theuser);
                }

            }

            string updatedjson = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(userslist, Formatting.Indented);
            File.WriteAllText("InviteData/data.json", updatedjson);

Can you create the JSON files again or must you use the existing ones? — w0051977, Jan 13 '18 at 10:34
Does this help? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23648193/how-to-deserialize-a-dynamically-named-root-node-with-json-net — w0051977, Jan 13 '18 at 10:44
Alternatively, (de)serialize as a dictionary as shown in [How can I parse a JSON string that would cause illegal C# identifiers?](https://stackoverflow.com/a/24536564/3744182). — dbc, Jan 13 '18 at 18:13

Filip Cordas · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-13T15:58:28.883

1

Your JSON is not formatted correctly but from what I can see this would do what you want.

JsonConvert.SerializeObject(userslist.ToDictionary(k => k.name, v => v),Formatting.Indented)

if you don't want the name twice put

[JsonIgnore]
public string name { get; set; }

on the property If the name is not unique in the collection do a

userslist.GroupBy(i=>i.Name).ToDictionary(k => k.Key, v => v)

And you will get collections as sub items.

edited Jan 13 '18 at 15:58

answered Jan 13 '18 at 15:53

Filip Cordas

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Oh that's weird, that it's not formatted correctly, I've let newtonsoft make the json for me. But thankyou this is what I needed! – Samo_ Jan 14 '18 at 12:29

How can I serialize an object and give it an identifier

1 Answers1