Parse json string using JSON.NET

Question

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.

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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;             }         } 

Answer 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>