Deserializing JSON with nested arrays in C#

Question

I'm having trouble trying to deserialize this JSON here:

{
    "response": {
        "numfound": 1,
        "start": 0,
        "docs": [
            {
                "enID": "9999",
                "startDate": "2013-09-25",
                "bName": "XXX",
                "pName": "YYY",
                "UName": [
                    "ZZZ"
                ],
                "agent": [
                    "BobVilla"
                ]
            }
        ]
    }
}

The classes I created for this are:

public class ResponseRoot {
    public Response response;
}

public class Response {
    public int numfound { get; set; }
    public int start { get; set; }
    public Docs[] docs;
}

public class Docs {
    public string enID { get; set; }
    public string startDate { get; set; }
    public string bName { get; set; }
    public string pName { get; set; }
    public UName[] UName;
    public Agent[] agent;
}

public class UName {
    public string uText { get; set; }
}

public class Agent {
    public string aText { get; set; }
}

But, whenever I call:

    ResponseRoot jsonResponse = sr.Deserialize<ResponseRoot>(jsonString);

jsonResponse ends up being null and the JSON isn't deserialized. I can't seem to tell why my classes may be wrong for this JSON.

In addition I'm getting this error: Cannot convert object of type 'System.String' to type 'UName' — jymbo
– jymbo, Commented Nov 21, 2013 at 22:32
Aren't the UName and agent members on Docs supposed to be arrays of strings? — user1726343
– user1726343, Commented Nov 21, 2013 at 22:33
uname and agent look like Lists of strings in the sample json. — Reacher Gilt
– Reacher Gilt, Commented Nov 21, 2013 at 22:34

Christian Phillips · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-21 22:37:12Z

13

This should work for your classes, using json2csharp

public class Doc
{
    public string enID { get; set; }
    public string startDate { get; set; }
    public string bName { get; set; }
    public string pName { get; set; }
    public List<string> UName { get; set; }
    public List<string> agent { get; set; }
}

public class Response
{
    public int numfound { get; set; }
    public int start { get; set; }
    public List<Doc> docs { get; set; }
}

public class ResponseRoot
{
    public Response response { get; set; }
}

answered Nov 21, 2013 at 22:37

Christian Phillips

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1 Comment

Christian Phillips Over a year ago

No problem, it's very handy ;)

x4rf41 · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-21 22:33:41Z

9

your code suggest that the UName Property of Docs is an array of objects, but it's an array of strings in json, same goes for agent

try this:

 public class Docs
 {
   public string enID { get; set; }
   public string startDate { get; set; }
   public string bName { get; set; }
   public string pName { get; set; }
   public string[]  UName;
   public string[] agent;
 }

and remove the UName and Agent classes

answered Nov 21, 2013 at 22:33

x4rf41

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1 Comment

T.J. Crowder Over a year ago

E.g., if UName were really the class specified, the JSON would have {uText: "ZZZ"} rather than just "ZZZ".

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