How can I deserialize JSON, which contains a root element; footer element and irrelevant data?

Question

I am looking at some JSON data, which looks like this (the data values are hypothetical):

{
    "students": [
        {
            "Class": "Mr Smith",
            "Student": [
                "Mark Williams",
                15,
                "1 The Street London",
                "Maths",
                "Football",
                "Tennis"
            ]
        },
    {
            "Class": "Ms Morgan",
            "Student": [
                "Jenny Phillips",
                12,
                "1 The Farm London",
                "English",
                "Netball",
                "Football"
            ]
        }
    ],
    "total": 2
}

I am trying to get the students into a class, which looks something like this:

public class Student
{
   public string Name {get; set}
   public int Age {get; set}
   public string Address {get; set}
}

Notice the following:

1) There is a root element (Students), which is irrelevant. 2) There is what appears to be a footer element (total), which is irrelevant. What is the correct terminology for the "footer" element? 3) Address; favourite subject; favourite sport and least favourite sport are irrelevant i.e. only name; age and address are relevant.

I have spent the last few hours trying to get this work with Newtonsoft e.g. I have tried this:

List<Student> students = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Student>(json);

How can I deserialise this with Newtonsoft? Ihave spent the last three hours trying to do this, but haven't managed it.

Well you have multiple students, so you'll need a collection of some sort for them, not a single `Student` object. — Broots Waymb, Jun 11 '20 at 15:10
@ Broots Waymb, please see my update. I was obviously a little lazy. — w0051977, Jun 11 '20 at 15:12
@w0051977 did you check out [this page](https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/SerializingJSONFragments.htm)? I only glanced over it (as I am also lazy), but it seems like it might address your use case. — Broots Waymb, Jun 11 '20 at 15:14
@Guru Stron , thanks. I have updated the json. I was copying and pasting part of the extract (and changing the values). The entire extract is large. — w0051977, Jun 11 '20 at 15:15
The root element, `students` is *not* irrelevant. It is the container for your individual `student` objects — Jonathan, Jun 11 '20 at 15:15
@Jonathan, not relevant to the class. I realise it is important to the json. — w0051977, Jun 11 '20 at 15:16
@Brian Rogers, please see my update. Wrote the question too quickily. — w0051977, Jun 11 '20 at 15:33
your class should be `public class Student { public string Class { get; set; } public IList — Vivek Nuna, Jun 11 '20 at 15:37
Does this answer your question? [Deserializing JSON into an object](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34222588/deserializing-json-into-an-object) — EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine, Jun 29 '20 at 16:04

Brian Rogers · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-11T15:46:51.863

3

You could use Json.Net's LINQ-to-JSON API (JObjects) to get the data into your list of students:

var jo = JObject.Parse(json);

List<Student> students = jo["students"]
    .Select(t => t["Student"])
    .Select(s => new Student
    {
        Name = (string)s[0],
        Age = (int)s[1],
        Address = (string)s[2]
    })
    .ToList();

Fiddle: https://dotnetfiddle.net/GzS9vj

edited Jun 11 '20 at 15:46

answered Jun 11 '20 at 15:34

Brian Rogers

125,747
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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 11 '20 at 15:31

0

You can write Custom Json Converter as per the requirement. You may take help from newtonsoft site: https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/CustomJsonConverter.htm

answered Jun 11 '20 at 15:31

Mukesh Vadodariya

194
7

How can I deserialize JSON, which contains a root element; footer element and irrelevant data?

2 Answers2