JSON newtonsoft deserialization

Question

I have to parse a Web API in the following format. Please be aware that I cannot change the format of the JSON. It will always come in in this format:

{
    "somethingone": "abc",
    "somethingtwo": "abcde-1234",
    "information": {
        "report": [{
                "a": "1",
                "b": "2",
                "c": "3"
            },
            {
                "a1": "1a",
                "b2": "2a",
                "c3": "3a"
            }, {
                "a1": "1b",
                "b2": "2b",
                "c3": "3b"
            },
        ]
    }
}

When I try to parse it in Newtonsoft, I get the following error message:

Cannot deserialize the current json object because(e.g.{"name":"value"}) into type because the type requires a json array (e.g.[1,2,3]) to deserialize correctly.

I have been trying to solve this issue for days, but cannot figure this out.

Answer 1

In this problem, possibility you are parsing your json as list of your class like List<ClassName> you should exclude List<> because you have single main object in incoming json

Answer 2

If your items in array of report is not fixed means these items are with count from 1 to N then declaring property for each of item is hard and your class objects structure become tedious.

So you need collect all your items in Dictionary so it can parse your items from number 1 to N.

These class object are suitable to your json.

class RootObj
{
    public string somethingone { get; set; }
    public string somethingtwo { get; set; }
    public Information information { get; set; }
}

class Information
{
    public Dictionary<string, string>[] report { get; set; }
}

And you can deserialize like

RootObj mainObj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObj>(json);

Console.WriteLine("somethingone: " + mainObj.somethingone);
Console.WriteLine("somethingtwo: " + mainObj.somethingtwo);

foreach (Dictionary<string, string> report in mainObj.information.report)
{
    foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> item in report)
    {
         string key = item.Key;
         string value = item.Value;

         Console.WriteLine(key + ": " + value);
    }
}

Console.ReadLine();

Output:

Live Demo