How can I convert part of an api response from an object to a list?

Question

There are a lot of similar questions on SO, but none of the ones I've read over the last two days seemed to help me.

I am using a public api to retrieve complex json objects. The response is rather predictable and I have the following generic class for the main response:

using Newtonsoft.Json;
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace publicapi {
    public class ApiGenericResponse<T> {
        public string Get { get; set; }
        public Dictionary<string, string> Parameters { get; set; }
        public List<object> Errors { get; set; }
        public int Results { get; set; }
        public Paging Paging { get; set; }

        public T Response { get; set; }
        //public List<T> Response { get; set; }
    }
}

The generic class is used during deserialisazing and the T that is expected is where I am having trouble. Most of the time the Response is an Array[Object] and everything was going great up until the response received is an Object and everything started crying over it.

When the public class ApiGenericResponse<T> is expecting List<T> Response , and it receives an array of objects, it works great up until there's an object instead.

ApiGenericResponse<ApiFixResponse> fixResp = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ApiGenericResponse<ApiFixResponse>>(string JasonContent); - Gives me a usable deserialized List to work with.

..<ApiStatResponse> statResp throws the following exception when trying to deserialize:

Now I know why it is complaining but my question is about getting past this hurdle.

The response and objects have their own class files thanks to https://json2csharp.com/ - There are too many to list here but it's all there and fine.

I like the list response as there are several ListBoxes that get populated with certain data, the single response won't be going into a ListBox but onto various controls.

How can I deserlialize these APIs correctly and use their methods and properties from the various classes that make up the objects?

One thing I have found was JsonConverter and thought to convert the Response into an Array of 1 object.

..but I have absolutely no idea how it works. There isn't very many videos using Newtonsoft.Json. I would really appreciate help in understanding how it all works, whether and explanation or links to articles that do explain.

Mainly, I would like to know how to handle the various T Response types

Thank you in advance.

So just wondering, wy don't you put a object instead of the T Response? Because if you have the object you can always try to cast it to the type you want. For example response is of object ErrorModel and in a switch or if/else statement you try to cast to a ErrorModel If it fails it will try again with the next statement until found or the default is met. — Jeremie de Vos, Aug 24 '21 at 14:50

How can I convert part of an api response from an object to a list?

0 Answers0