How to convert XML to JSON using C#/LINQ?

Question

I have the following XML file that I need to convert to JSON in the server. Initially I thought I would convert it to a Dictionary and then use the JavaScriptSerializer to t

Answer 1

For deep nesting of XML elements with more and unknown attributes you can use this recursion:

private static string XmlToJson(string xmlString)
{
    return new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(GetXmlValues(XElement.Parse(xmlString)));
}

private static Dictionary GetXmlValues(XElement xml)
{
    var attr = xml.Attributes().ToDictionary(d => d.Name.LocalName, d => (object)d.Value);
    if (xml.HasElements) attr.Add("_value", xml.Elements().Select(e => GetXmlValues(e)));
    else if (!xml.IsEmpty) attr.Add("_value", xml.Value);

    return new Dictionary { { xml.Name.LocalName, attr } };
}

For your example the result will be:

{
    "Columns":{
        "_value":[
            {
                "Column":{
                    "Name":"key1",
                    "DataType":"Boolean",
                    "_value":"True"
                }
            },
            {
                "Column":{
                    "Name":"key2",
                    "DataType":"String",
                    "_value":"Hello World"
                }
            },
            {
                "Column":{
                    "Name":"key3",
                    "DataType":"Integer",
                    "_value":"999"
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

And for more complex XML case like this, you can check the JSON analogue here.