Parse json string using JSON.NET

I have a string like the following in C#. I need to loop through and create an HTML table output. I tried with JSON.NET but couldn’t figure out how to retrieve the keys (Name, Age & Job).

string data = "{items:[
{'Name':'AAA','Age':'22','Job':'PPP'}
,{'Name':'BBB','Age':'25','Job':'QQQ'}
,{'Name':'CCC','Age':'38','Job':'RRR'}]}";

The table format is

.........................  
| Name  | Age   | Job   |  
.........................  
| AAA   | 22    | PPP   |  
.........................  
| BBBB  | 25    | QQQ   |  
.........................  
| CCC   | 28    | RRR   |  
.........................   

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

The code provided by Dave is the ideal solution here.. but it work for .NET 4.0.. I have used following code with JSON.NET for .NET 3.5

using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;

string jsonString = "{items:[{'Name':'Anz','Age':'29','Job':''},{'Name':'Sanjai','Age':'28','Job':'Developer'},{'Name':'Rajeev','Age':'31','Job':'Designer'}]}";

        JObject root = JObject.Parse(jsonString);

        JArray items = (JArray)root["items"];

        JObject item;
        JToken jtoken;

        for (int i = 0; i < items.Count; i++) //loop through rows
        {
            item = (JObject)items[i];
            jtoken = item.First;

            while (jtoken != null)//loop through columns
            {
                Response.Write(((JProperty)jtoken).Name.ToString() + " : " + ((JProperty)jtoken).Value.ToString() + "<br />");

                jtoken = jtoken.Next;
            }
        }

Answers:

Thank you for visiting the Q&A section on Magenaut. Please note that all the answers may not help you solve the issue immediately. So please treat them as advisements. If you found the post helpful (or not), leave a comment & I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Method 1

You can use .NET 4’s dynamic type and built-in JavaScriptSerializer to do that. Something like this, maybe:

string json = "{"items":[{"Name":"AAA","Age":"22","Job":"PPP"},{"Name":"BBB","Age":"25","Job":"QQQ"},{"Name":"CCC","Age":"38","Job":"RRR"}]}";

var jss = new JavaScriptSerializer();

dynamic data = jss.Deserialize<dynamic>(json);

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

sb.Append("<table>n  <thead>n    <tr>n");

// Build the header based on the keys in the
//  first data item.
foreach (string key in data["items"][0].Keys) {
        sb.AppendFormat("      <th>{0}</th>n", key);
}

sb.Append("    </tr>n  </thead>n  <tbody>n");

foreach (Dictionary<string, object> item in data["items"]) {
    sb.Append("    <tr>n");

    foreach (string val in item.Values) {
        sb.AppendFormat("      <td>{0}</td>n", val);
    }
}

sb.Append("    </tr>n  </tbody>n</table>");

string myTable = sb.ToString();

At the end, myTable will hold a string that looks like this:

<table>
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Name</th>
            <th>Age</th>
            <th>Job</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>AAA</td>
            <td>22</td>
            <td>PPP</td>
        <tr>
            <td>BBB</td>
            <td>25</td>
            <td>QQQ</td>
        <tr>
            <td>CCC</td>
            <td>38</td>
            <td>RRR</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

Method 2

I did not test the following snippet… hopefully it will point you towards the right direction:

    var jsreader = new JsonTextReader(new StringReader(stringData));
    var json = (JObject)new JsonSerializer().Deserialize(jsreader);
    var tableRows = from p in json["items"]
                 select new
                 {
                     Name = (string)p["Name"],
                     Age = (int)p["Age"],
                     Job = (string)p["Job"]
                 };

Method 3

If your keys are dynamic I would suggest deserializing directly into a DataTable:

    class SampleData
    {
        [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "items")]
        public System.Data.DataTable Items { get; set; }
    }

    public void DerializeTable()
    {
        const string json = @"{items:["
            + @"{""Name"":""AAA"",""Age"":""22"",""Job"":""PPP""},"
            + @"{""Name"":""BBB"",""Age"":""25"",""Job"":""QQQ""},"
            + @"{""Name"":""CCC"",""Age"":""38"",""Job"":""RRR""}]}";
        var sampleData = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<SampleData>(json);
        var table = sampleData.Items;

        // write tab delimited table without knowing column names
        var line = string.Empty;
        foreach (DataColumn column in table.Columns)            
            line += column.ColumnName + "t";                       
        Console.WriteLine(line);

        foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows)
        {
            line = string.Empty;
            foreach (DataColumn column in table.Columns)                
                line += row<div class="su-column su-column-size-1-2"><div class="su-column-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim"></div></div> + "t";                                   
            Console.WriteLine(line);
        }

        // Name   Age   Job    
        // AAA    22    PPP    
        // BBB    25    QQQ    
        // CCC    38    RRR    
    }

You can determine the DataTable column names and types dynamically once deserialized.

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0