How can I convert JToken to string[]?

Question

I am trying to read an array from a JObject into a string[] but I cannot figure out how.

The code is very simple as below but does not work. Fails with error cannot convert JToken to string[]

JObject Items = jsonSerializer.Deserialize<JObject>(jtr);
string[] brands = null;
brands = (string[])Items.SelectToken("Documents[0].Brands");

The following works when I want to read a simple bool so I know I am in the right place.

IsAdmin = (bool)Items.SelectToken("Documents[0].IsAdmin");

the JObject in Documents[0] looks as follows

{
    "id": "961AA6A6-F372-ZZZZ-1270-ZZZZZ",
    "ApiKey": "SDKTest",
    "ConsumerName": "SDKTest",
    "IsAdmin": false,
    "Brands": [
        "ZZZ"
    ],
    "IsSdkUser": true
}

How can I read that Brands array into my string[] brands?

Answer 1

You can use JToken.ToObject<T>() to deserialize a JToken to any compatible .Net type, i.e.

var brands = Items.SelectToken("Documents[0].Brands")?.ToObject<string []>();

Casting operations on JToken such as (bool)Items.SelectToken("Documents[0].IsAdmin") only work for primitive types for which Newtonsoft has supplied an explicit or implicit conversion operator, all of which are documented in JToken Type Conversions. Since no such conversion operator was implemented for string[], deserialization is necessary.

Demo fiddle here.