Parse this json string to string array c#

Question

Feels like there is a one-two row solution for what I want to do: Parse a string like this:

 "{\"postalcode\":\"12345\",\"postalcity\":\"SOME-CITY\",\"country\":\"UK\",\"box\":false}"

Into something like this:

    string[] result = { "12345", "SOME-CITY", "UK", "false" };

Whats the simplest way to do this?

Answer 1

string json = "{\"postalcode\":\"12345\",\"postalcity\":\"SOME-CITY\",\"country\":\"UK\",\"box\":false}";

var dict = new JavaScriptSerializer().Deserialize<Dictionary<string,object>>(json);
var postalCode = dict["postalcode"];

//Array is also possible
string[] result = dict.Select(kv => kv.Value.ToString()).ToArray();

Answer 2

You could also use newtonsoft : http://james.newtonking.com/pages/json-net.aspx

string json = @"{
  ""Name"": ""Apple"",
  ""Expiry"": new Date(1230422400000),
  ""Price"": 3.99,
  ""Sizes"": [
    ""Small"",
    ""Medium"",
    ""Large""
  ]
}";

JObject o = JObject.Parse(json);

string name = (string)o["Name"];
// Apple

JArray sizes = (JArray)o["Sizes"];

string smallest = (string)sizes[0];
// Small

I found another related post : JSON to string array in C#
Lib : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.script.serialization.javascriptserializer.aspx

Answer 3

It looks like your input string is a JSON string, for which you can use a JSON deserializer if you want. If not you can use regular-expression along with named-groups as the following:

List<string> values = new List<string>();
List<string> keys= new List<string>();

string pattern = @"\""(?<key>[^\""]+)\""\:\""?(?<value>[^\"",}]+)\""?\,?";
foreach(Match m in Regex.Matches(input, pattern))
{
    if (m.Success)
    {
        values.Add(m.Groups["value"].Value);
        keys.Add(m.Groups["key"].Value);
    }
}

var result = values.ToArray();

Named groups in regular-expression are indicated by (?<group-name>pattern). In the above pattern we have two named groups: key, and value which can be grabbed from the Match object using the Groups indexer.

Answer 4

You could use JavaScriptSerializer to serialize the json into a dynamic object which would allow you to access the properties via name e.g.

var address = new JavaScriptSerializer().Deserialize<dynamic>(json);
Console.WriteLine(address["postalcode"]);