Deserializing Json With Unknown Key - ASP.Net Core 3.1

Question

I'd like to deserialize the following JSON with .Net 3.1

My difficulty is the "1234" key for this object is unknown when this object is serialized. How could I deserialize this? The values I want to keep are the nested "first_name" and "last_name" attributes

{
   "1234":{
      "id":1234,
      "first_name":"John",
      "last_name":"Doe"
   }
}

Any help is appreciated!

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 16 '21 at 07:26

In case you're using the Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConverter library, you could create a custom JsonConverter to handle dynamic properties and override the ReadJson and WriteJson methods.

public class MyConverter : JsonConverter
{
    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        // write your custom read json
    }

    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        // write your custom write json
    }
}

https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/T_Newtonsoft_Json_JsonConverter.htm

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 16 '21 at 07:34

You could use a dictionary:

public class Child
{
    [JsonPropertyName("id")]
    public string ID { get; set; }
    [JsonPropertyName("first_name")]
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    [JsonPropertyName("last_name")]
    public string LastName { get; set; }
}

public class Parent
{
    public Dictionary<string, Child> Children { get; set; }
}

You can then enumerate through Children using Foreach or Linq.

Deserializing Json With Unknown Key - ASP.Net Core 3.1

2 Answers2