How can I deserialize JSON to a simple Dictionary<

Question

I have a simple key/value list in JSON being sent back to ASP.NET via POST. Example:

{ "key1": "value1", "key2": "value2"}

I AM NOT TRYING TO DESERIALIZE INTO STRONGLY-TYPED .NET OBJECTS

I simply need a plain old Dictionary(Of String, String), or some equivalent (hash table, Dictionary(Of String, Object), old-school StringDictionary--hell, a 2-D array of strings would work for me.

I can use anything available in ASP.NET 3.5, as well as the popular Json.NET (which I'm already using for serialization to the client).

Apparently neither of these JSON libraries have this forehead-slapping obvious capability out of the box--they are totally focused on reflection-based deserialization via strong contracts.

Any ideas?

Limitations:

1. I don't want to implement my own JSON parser
2. Can't use ASP.NET 4.0 yet
3. Would prefer to stay away from the older, deprecated ASP.NET class for JSON

Answer 1

I would suggest using System.Runtime.Serialization.Json that is part of .NET 4.5.

[DataContract]
public class Foo
{
   [DataMember(Name = "data")]
   public Dictionary<string,string> Data { get; set; }
}

Then use it like this:

var serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(List<Foo>));
var jsonParams = @"{""data"": [{""Key"":""foo"",""Value"":""bar""}] }";
var stream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(jsonParams));

var obj = serializer.ReadObject(stream);
Console.WriteLine(obj);

Answer 2

I added a check for null values in the JSON to the other answer

I had same problem so I wrote this my self. This solution is differentiated from other answers because it can deserialize in to multiple levels.

Just send json string in to deserializeToDictionary function it will return non strongly-typed Dictionary<string, object> object.

private Dictionary<string, object> deserializeToDictionary(string jo)
{
    var values = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, object>>(jo);
    var values2 = new Dictionary<string, object>();
    foreach (KeyValuePair<string, object> d in values)
    {
        if (d.Value != null && d.Value.GetType().FullName.Contains("Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JObject"))
        {
            values2.Add(d.Key, deserializeToDictionary(d.Value.ToString()));
        }
        else
        {
            values2.Add(d.Key, d.Value);
        }
    }
    return values2;
}

Ex: This will return Dictionary<string, object> object of a Facebook JSON response.

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    string responsestring = "{\"id\":\"721055828\",\"name\":\"Dasun Sameera
        Weerasinghe\",\"first_name\":\"Dasun\",\"middle_name\":\"Sameera\",\"last_name\":\"Weerasinghe\",\"username\":\"dasun\",\"gender\":\"male\",\"locale\":\"en_US\",
        hometown: {id: \"108388329191258\", name: \"Moratuwa, Sri Lanka\",}}";
    Dictionary<string, object> values = deserializeToDictionary(responsestring);
}

Note: hometown further deserialize into a Dictionary<string, object> object.

Answer 3

I've added upon the code submitted by jSnake04 and Dasun herein. I've added code to create lists of objects from JArray instances. It has two-way recursion but as it is functioning on a fixed, finite tree model, there is no risk of stack overflow unless the data is massive.

/// <summary>
/// Deserialize the given JSON string data (<paramref name="data"/>) into a
///   dictionary.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="data">JSON string.</param>
/// <returns>Deserialized dictionary.</returns>
private IDictionary<string, object> DeserializeData(string data)
{
    var values = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, object>>(data);

    return DeserializeData(values);
}

/// <summary>
/// Deserialize the given JSON object (<paramref name="data"/>) into a dictionary.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="data">JSON object.</param>
/// <returns>Deserialized dictionary.</returns>
private IDictionary<string, object> DeserializeData(JObject data)
{
    var dict = data.ToObject<Dictionary<String, Object>>();

    return DeserializeData(dict);
}

/// <summary>
/// Deserialize any elements of the given data dictionary (<paramref name="data"/>) 
///   that are JSON object or JSON arrays into dictionaries or lists respectively.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="data">Data dictionary.</param>
/// <returns>Deserialized dictionary.</returns>
private IDictionary<string, object> DeserializeData(IDictionary<string, object> data)
{
    foreach (var key in data.Keys.ToArray()) 
    {
        var value = data[key];

        if (value is JObject)
            data[key] = DeserializeData(value as JObject);

        if (value is JArray)
            data[key] = DeserializeData(value as JArray);
    }

    return data;
}

/// <summary>
/// Deserialize the given JSON array (<paramref name="data"/>) into a list.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="data">Data dictionary.</param>
/// <returns>Deserialized list.</returns>
private IList<Object> DeserializeData(JArray data)
{
    var list = data.ToObject<List<Object>>();

    for (int i = 0; i < list.Count; i++)
    {
        var value = list[i];

        if (value is JObject)
            list[i] = DeserializeData(value as JObject);

        if (value is JArray)
            list[i] = DeserializeData(value as JArray);
    }

    return list;
}

Answer 4

Annoyingly enough, if you want to use the default model binders, it looks like you will have to use numerical index values like a form POST.

See the following excerpt from this article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/hh781022.aspx:

Though it’s somewhat counterintuitive, JSON requests have the same requirements—they, too, must adhere to the form post naming syntax. Take, for example, the JSON payload for the previous UnitPrice collection. The pure JSON array syntax for this data would be represented as:

[ 
  { "Code": "USD", "Amount": 100.00 },
  { "Code": "EUR", "Amount": 73.64 }
]

However, the default value providers and model binders require the data to be represented as a JSON form post:

{
  "UnitPrice[0].Code": "USD",
  "UnitPrice[0].Amount": 100.00,

  "UnitPrice[1].Code": "EUR",
  "UnitPrice[1].Amount": 73.64
}

The complex object collection scenario is perhaps one of the most widely problematic scenarios that developers run into because the syntax isn’t necessarily evident to all developers. However, once you learn the relatively simple syntax for posting complex collections, these scenarios become much easier to deal with.

Answer 5

I just needed to parse a nested dictionary, like

{
    "x": {
        "a": 1,
        "b": 2,
        "c": 3
    }
}

where JsonConvert.DeserializeObject doesn't help. I found the following approach:

var dict = JObject.Parse(json).SelectToken("x").ToObject<Dictionary<string, int>>();

The SelectToken lets you dig down to the desired field. You can even specify a path like "x.y.z" to step further down into the JSON object.

Answer 6

My approach directly deserializes to IDictionary, without JObject or ExpandObject in between. The code uses converter, which is basically copied from ExpandoObjectConverter class found in JSON.NET sourcecode, but using IDictionary instead of ExpandoObject.

Usage:

var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings()
{
    Converters = { new DictionaryConverter() },
};
var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<IDictionary<string, object>>(json, settings);

Code:

// based on ExpandoObjectConverter, but using arrays instead of IList, to behave similar to System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer
public class DictionaryConverter : JsonConverter
{
    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
    }

    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        return ReadValue(reader);
    }

    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        return (objectType == typeof(IDictionary<string, object>));
    }

    public override bool CanWrite
    {
        get { return false; }
    }

    private object ReadValue(JsonReader reader)
    {
        while (reader.TokenType == JsonToken.Comment)
        {
            if (!reader.Read())
                throw JsonSerializationExceptionCreate(reader, "Unexpected end when reading IDictionary<string, object>.");
        }

        switch (reader.TokenType)
        {
            case JsonToken.StartObject:
                return ReadObject(reader);
            case JsonToken.StartArray:
                return ReadList(reader);
            default:
                if (IsPrimitiveToken(reader.TokenType))
                    return reader.Value;

                throw JsonSerializationExceptionCreate(reader, string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "Unexpected token when converting IDictionary<string, object>: {0}", reader.TokenType));
        }
    }

    private object ReadList(JsonReader reader)
    {
        List<object> list = new List<object>();

        while (reader.Read())
        {
            switch (reader.TokenType)
            {
                case JsonToken.Comment:
                    break;
                default:
                    object v = ReadValue(reader);

                    list.Add(v);
                    break;
                case JsonToken.EndArray:
                    return list;
            }
        }

        throw JsonSerializationExceptionCreate(reader, "Unexpected end when reading IDictionary<string, object>.");
    }

    private object ReadObject(JsonReader reader)
    {
        IDictionary<string, object> dictionary = new Dictionary<string, object>();
        while (reader.Read())
        {
            switch (reader.TokenType)
            {
                case JsonToken.PropertyName:
                    string propertyName = reader.Value.ToString();

                    if (!reader.Read())
                        throw JsonSerializationExceptionCreate(reader, "Unexpected end when reading IDictionary<string, object>.");

                    object v = ReadValue(reader);

                    dictionary[propertyName] = v;
                    break;
                case JsonToken.Comment:
                    break;
                case JsonToken.EndObject:
                    return dictionary;
            }
        }

        throw JsonSerializationExceptionCreate(reader, "Unexpected end when reading IDictionary<string, object>.");
    }

    //based on internal Newtonsoft.Json.JsonReader.IsPrimitiveToken
    internal static bool IsPrimitiveToken(JsonToken token)
    {
        switch (token)
        {
            case JsonToken.Integer:
            case JsonToken.Float:
            case JsonToken.String:
            case JsonToken.Boolean:
            case JsonToken.Undefined:
            case JsonToken.Null:
            case JsonToken.Date:
            case JsonToken.Bytes:
                return true;
            default:
                return false;
        }
    }

    // based on internal Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializationException.Create
    private static JsonSerializationException JsonSerializationExceptionCreate(JsonReader reader, string message, Exception ex = null)
    {
        return JsonSerializationExceptionCreate(reader as IJsonLineInfo, reader.Path, message, ex);
    }

    // based on internal Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializationException.Create
    private static JsonSerializationException JsonSerializationExceptionCreate(IJsonLineInfo lineInfo, string path, string message, Exception ex)
    {
        message = JsonPositionFormatMessage(lineInfo, path, message);

        return new JsonSerializationException(message, ex);
    }

    // based on internal Newtonsoft.Json.JsonPosition.FormatMessage
    internal static string JsonPositionFormatMessage(IJsonLineInfo lineInfo, string path, string message)
    {
        if (!message.EndsWith(Environment.NewLine))
        {
            message = message.Trim();

            if (!message.EndsWith(".", StringComparison.Ordinal))
                message += ".";

            message += " ";
        }

        message += string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "Path '{0}'", path);

        if (lineInfo != null && lineInfo.HasLineInfo())
            message += string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, ", line {0}, position {1}", lineInfo.LineNumber, lineInfo.LinePosition);

        message += ".";

        return message;
    }
}