How To Work With JSON In ASP.NET

Dipendra Shekhawat

6y114.1k11100Article

ASP.NETJSON in ASP.NETwork with JSON

11 Comments

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tech knowledge5y ago
I want json format of mysql database table with the help of asp.net webapi
P K5y ago
Can u tell me where to write that code.............???????????/
- Dipendra Shekhawat5y ago
  You can write it in your .cs file where you want to implement it
Yogesh Mhadgut6y ago
Please share complete artical on JSON with asp.net
- Dipendra Shekhawat6y ago
  Complete article as in? I have shared the basic example of working with JSON data in our ASP.NET web application. The complete article can be written targeting a use case.
Amit Dave10y ago
Keep up the Good work!
Dipendra Shekhawat10y ago
Thanks Sonu Chaudhary !!
Sonu Chaudhary10y ago
Thanks for sharing
Dipendra Shekhawat10y ago
Thanks Guys !!!
Nitin10y ago
Good one
Kuppurasu Nagaraj10y ago
Nice Sharing..

Introduction

Pretty excited while writing this article as it’s one of the favorite topics for me. Before jumping into working with JSON, let’s first understand what it is.

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language, Standard ECMA-262 3rd Edition – December 1999.

What is JSON?

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation
JSON is a format to exchange & store data across platforms.
JSON is the best alternative to XML
JSON stores values in the key/value pair format.

How to work with JSON in ASP.NET?

With the introduction of JSON, many developers prefer to use JSON instead of XML

Below are the reasons for using JSON:

XML is expressed in more words than JSON. Hence, JSON is faster to write for programmers.
JSON is lightweight and easy to write compared to XML.
We can store values as key/value pair in JSON. Whereas, in XML, we have to store values between opening and closing tags.

Working with JSON in ASP.NET

JSON follows syntax based on JavaScript and it cannot be processed the same way by C#.

In order to work with JSON in ASP.NET or C#, there are three methods.

Using a free library, which would do all the complex work for you.
Working with DataContracts that are built-in to the .NET framework.
Writing your own “parser” for converting JSON into suitable format required.

In this article, I have used the free library named – JSON.NET. You can add this library to your project using the NuGet package manager. If you are not sure about adding the library, please refer to this article – Adding references using NuGet packages

Code Snippets

public JObject ReadJSONData(string jsonFilename)
{
try
{
JObject jObject;
// Read JSON directly from a file
using (StreamReader file = System.IO.File.OpenText(jsonFilename))
using (JsonTextReader reader = new JsonTextReader(file))
{
jObject = (JObject)JToken.ReadFrom(reader);
}
return jObject;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Error Occurred : " + ex.Message);
return null;
}
}
//Read calendar info from JSON file
JObject jObject = ReadJSONData(jsonFilename);
for (int i = 0; i < jObject["employee"].Count(); i++)
{
//Your logic goes here...
}

Example of JSON file

{
"employee": [{
"name": "Shankar",
"empid": "1",
"department": "Design",
}, {
"name": "Ashish",
"empid": "2",
"department": "Testing",
}, {
"name": "Dipendra",
"empid": "3",
"department": "Development",
}]
}

I hope you enjoyed this article. Keep exploring and using JSON with ASP.NET. Let me know in case if you feel there is an issue with the article or if you didn’t follow any part of it.

What do you think?

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