A Simple Way To Deserialize JSON

Sridhar Sharma

6y23.9k19100Article

19 Comments

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Pro Meliora5y ago
God bless you. I’ve hunted all over for this, and until this page have found only information for people who likely don’t need it.
Sridhar Sharma10y ago
Thanks SanthaKumar :)
Santhakumar Munuswamy10y ago
Good One
kakarla jayasree10y ago
Good Information
- Sridhar Sharma10y ago
  Thanks Jayasree :)
Humayun Kabir Mamun10y ago
Nice...
- Sridhar Sharma10y ago
  Thanks Humayun :)
Sridhar Sharma10y ago
Thanks Ershad
Former member10y ago
very good
Banketeshvar Narayan10y ago
Nice Share
- Sridhar Sharma10y ago
  Thanks Banketeshvar :)
Manas Mohapatra10y ago
Good One Sri.. Welcome to C# Corner :)
- Sridhar Sharma10y ago
  :) Tq Manas
Raja T10y ago
Nice, Thanks for sharing
- Sridhar Sharma10y ago
  Thanks Raja :)
Sibeesh Venu10y ago
Nice Share
- Sridhar Sharma10y ago
  Thanks Sibeesh
Harshad Pansuriya10y ago
Nice
- Sridhar Sharma10y ago
  Thank you :)

What is JSON?

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a way to store information in an organized, easy-to-access manner.

Why JSON?

JSON provides faster and asynchronous data loading without delaying page rendering.

JSON Free Web Service Providers

Have a look at the site.

In this article, I will show a sample program to read a random quantum number from a site that provides JSON Service and after fetching the data, we will de-serialize it into an object.

Firstly, create a console application and install Newtonsoft.JSON using Package Manager Console.

PM> install-package Newtonsoft.Json

I’ll call the link from the program to fetch the random number and then we will de-serialize.

When you try to access the above link, you should be able to see the data something like the following:

{
"type": "uint8",
"length": 1,
"data": [52],
"success": true
}

We will create a class as shown below which will be used for holding de-serialized value.

public class QuantumRandomNumber
{
public string type
{
get;
set;
}
public string length
{
get;
set;
}
public List < string > data
{
get;
set;
}
public string success
{
get;
set;
}
}

For downloading and de-serializing JSON, we will use the following method:

private static T _download_serialized_json_data < T > (string url) where T: new()
{
using(var w = new System.Net.WebClient())
{
var json_data = string.Empty;
// attempt to download JSON data as a string
try
{
Console.WriteLine("Started downloading data");
json_data = w.DownloadString(url);
Console.WriteLine("Completed downloading");
}
catch (Exception)
{}
// if string with JSON data is not empty, deserialize it to class and return its instance
return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(json_data) ? JsonConvert.DeserializeObject < T > (json_data) : new T();
}
}

Now, Call the URL

static void Main(string[] args)
{
var url = "https://qrng.anu.edu.au/API/jsonI.php?length=1&type=uint8";
var t = _download_serialized_json_data < QuantumRandomNumber > (url);
Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number details are:");
Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number :" + t.data[0].ToString());
Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number Type:" + t.type);
Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number Length:" + t.length);
Console.ReadLine();
}

Entire Program

using Newtonsoft.Json;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace QuantumNumber
{
class Program
{
public class QuantumRandomNumber
{
public string type
{
get;
set;
}
public string length
{
get;
set;
}
public List < string > data
{
get;
set;
}
public string success
{
get;
set;
}
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var url = "https://qrng.anu.edu.au/API/jsonI.php?length=1&type=uint8";
var t = _download_serialized_json_data < QuantumRandomNumber > (url);
Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number details are:");
Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number :" + t.data[0].ToString());
Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number Type:" + t.type);
Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number Length:" + t.length);
Console.ReadLine();
}
private static T _download_serialized_json_data < T > (string url) where T: new()
{
using(var w = new System.Net.WebClient())
{
var json_data = string.Empty;
// attempt to download JSON data as a string
try
{
Console.WriteLine("Started downloading data");
json_data = w.DownloadString(url);
Console.WriteLine("Completed downloading");
}
catch (Exception)
{}
// if string with JSON data is not empty, deserialize it to class and return its instance
return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(json_data) ? JsonConvert.DeserializeObject < T > (json_data) : new T();
}
}
}
}

Output

JSON is a faster way to load data. For more details about JSON, click on the link.