How to deserialize a Json string that has an array of objects but is not using square brackets

Question

I'm trying to deserialize a Json string that has an array with no containing brackets.

{ "id": "983f90j30909j3f",
  "moreInfo": {
      "info193802": { ... },
      "info920938": { ... },
      "info849028": { ... }
  }
}

This "moreInfo" is an array of items with dynamic keys and does not have square brackets telling that it's an array.

I've tried to deserialize it with Newtonsoft.Json normally ( JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<rootObject>() ) but since this json array isn't really an array it throws an error. Here is my class:

public class RootObject
{
    public string Id { get; set; }
    public MoreInfo MoreInfo { get; set; }
}


public class MoreInfo
{   
    public List<Info> InfoList{ get; set; }
}

public class Info
{
    properties...
}

How do I go about deserializing this?

Answer 1

Update the root object to use IDictionary<string, Info>

public class RootObject {
    public string Id { get; set; }
    public IDictionary<string, Info> MoreInfo { get; set; }
}

the dynamic keys will be the key in the dictionary.

Once parsed you access the info via the dictionary's keys

Info info = rootObject.MoreInfo["info193802"];

Answer 2

Newtonsoft can correctly parse the data. The data represents objects, they happen to be nested fairly deep. You can accomplish it a couple of ways, for instance:

dynamic json = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(response);
var info = json["moreinfo:info913802:example"].Value;

Your other option would be to use Visual Studio, let it create an object you can deserialize to.

1. Edit
2. Paste Special
3. As JSON

Output would be:

public class Rootobject
{
    public string id { get; set; }
    public Moreinfo moreInfo { get; set; }
}

public class Moreinfo
{
    public Info193802 info193802 { get; set; }
    public Info920938 info920938 { get; set; }
    public Info849028 info849028 { get; set; }
}

public class Info193802
{
    public string Example { get; set; }
}

public class Info920938
{
    public string Example { get; set; }
}

public class Info849028
{
    public string Example { get; set; }
}

The source JSON I used was yours, with one exception:

{ "id": "983f90j30909j3f",
  "moreInfo": {
      "info193802": { "Example" : "Blah" },
      "info920938": { "Example" : "Blah" },
      "info849028": {"Example" : "Blah" }
  }
}