Parse this json string to string array c#

Question

Feels like there is a one-two row solution for what I want to do: Parse a string like this:

 "{\"postalcode\":\"12345\",\"postalcity\":\"SOME-CITY\",\"country\":\"UK\",\"box\":false}"

Into something like this:

    string[] result = { "12345", "SOME-CITY", "UK", "false" };

Whats the simplest way to do this?

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 05 '12 at 11:26

23

string json = "{\"postalcode\":\"12345\",\"postalcity\":\"SOME-CITY\",\"country\":\"UK\",\"box\":false}";

var dict = new JavaScriptSerializer().Deserialize<Dictionary<string,object>>(json);
var postalCode = dict["postalcode"];

//Array is also possible
string[] result = dict.Select(kv => kv.Value.ToString()).ToArray();

answered Dec 05 '12 at 11:26

L.B

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Hi .. this method throws an exception when i try to deserialize a json string containing multiple objects. Is there a way to resolve that ? – Rajesh May 15 '14 at 08:42
please ignore my comment above, the JavaScriptSerializer().DeserializeObject() method seems to be working fine . – Rajesh May 15 '14 at 08:46
Awesome. :) quick and neat :) '+1' from me. – sebastian Mar 10 '17 at 11:52

score 6 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:32

You could also use newtonsoft : http://james.newtonking.com/pages/json-net.aspx

string json = @"{
  ""Name"": ""Apple"",
  ""Expiry"": new Date(1230422400000),
  ""Price"": 3.99,
  ""Sizes"": [
    ""Small"",
    ""Medium"",
    ""Large""
  ]
}";

JObject o = JObject.Parse(json);

string name = (string)o["Name"];
// Apple

JArray sizes = (JArray)o["Sizes"];

string smallest = (string)sizes[0];
// Small

I found another related post : JSON to string array in C#
Lib : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.script.serialization.javascriptserializer.aspx

score 4 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 28 '17 at 16:21

It looks like your input string is a JSON string, for which you can use a JSON deserializer if you want. If not you can use regular-expression along with named-groups as the following:

List<string> values = new List<string>();
List<string> keys= new List<string>();

string pattern = @"\""(?<key>[^\""]+)\""\:\""?(?<value>[^\"",}]+)\""?\,?";
foreach(Match m in Regex.Matches(input, pattern))
{
    if (m.Success)
    {
        values.Add(m.Groups["value"].Value);
        keys.Add(m.Groups["key"].Value);
    }
}

var result = values.ToArray();

Named groups in regular-expression are indicated by (?<group-name>pattern). In the above pattern we have two named groups: key, and value which can be grabbed from the Match object using the Groups indexer.

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 05 '12 at 11:01

3

You could use JavaScriptSerializer to serialize the json into a dynamic object which would allow you to access the properties via name e.g.

var address = new JavaScriptSerializer().Deserialize<dynamic>(json);
Console.WriteLine(address["postalcode"]);

answered Dec 05 '12 at 11:01

James

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score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 23 '22 at 15:46

I just ran into a similar rabbit hole. This helped me with out any other .dll installs. Hope this helps someone.

using System.Text.Json.Nodes;

public static string cSettings = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + @"\Application_Settings.json";

public static void Read_JSON() 
{
   string read = File.ReadAllText(cSettings);

   var jsonObject = JsonNode.Parse(read);

   var appname = jsonObject["appname"];

   MessageBox.Show(appname.ToString());
}

//output: my test app

Application_Settings.json


{
  "appname": "my test app",
  "version": "1.0.003",
  "id": null,
  "firstrun": null,
  "firstname": "t",
  "lastname": "t",
  "email": "some@gmail.com",
  "cpu1id": "F00A20F10",
  "cpu1key": null,
  "gamingpc": false
}

Link to where I found this reference.

I'm using Visual Studio 2022 C#

Parse this json string to string array c#

5 Answers5

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