Working with JSON in C# .NET 3.5

Question

I have found some helper method that allow me to convert an object to JSONM and JSON to an object. Now I am reading in a json file that looks something like this:

Answer 1

I have changed the above 'From' Method to this one, in order to get an array of objects:

public static T Deserialize<T>(string json)
    {
        T obj;
        using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Default.GetBytes(json)))
        {
            System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer deserializer = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(T));
            obj = (T)desirializer.ReadObject(ms);
        }

        return obj;
    }

Then, in case you have an array of objects :

Person[] personArray = JsonHelper.Deserialize<Person[]>(input);

or if you have one object :

Person person = JsonHelper.Deserialize<Person>(input);

Answer 2

Download Json.NET. That handles JSON better than anything else I've seen for .NET. I think the Json serializer will do what you're asking.

Also, take a look at the related questions over there on the right. I do believe you'll find the answer there.

Answer 3

You need to use DataContractJsonSerializer which is in the System.Runtime.Serialization.Json namespace. Mark your class with the [DataContract] attribute, collection classes with the [CollectionDataContract] attribute and the properties with the [DataMember] attribute.

[CollectionDataContract]
public class People : List<Person>
{

}

[DataContract]
public class Person
{
     public Person() { }

     [DataMember]
     public int Id{ get; set; }

     [DataMember]
     public string Name { get; set; }
}

Here is a helper class to serialize (To) and deserialize (From)

using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Json;

public class jsonHelper
{
    public static string To<T>(T obj)
    {
        string retVal = null;
        System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer serializer = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer(obj.GetType());
        using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
        {
         serializer.WriteObject(ms, obj);
         retVal = Encoding.Default.GetString(ms.ToArray());
        }

        return retVal;
    }

    public static T From<T>(string json)
    {
        T obj = Activator.CreateInstance<T>();
        using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(json)))
        {
         System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer serializer = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer(obj.GetType());
         obj = (T)serializer.ReadObject(ms);
        }

        return obj;
    }
}

So take your json above and send it to the From method in the jsonHelper class above

People peeps = jsonHelper.From<People>(input);