How to count number of JSON elements in an array in C#

Question

I'm worinkg with instagram API and when I'm receiving recent media with any hashtag by this template: https://api.instagram.com/v1/tags/{hashtag}/media/recent I'm receiving data like this:

{
  "pagination": {
    "next_max_tag_id": "any_number",
    "deprecation_warning": "next_max_id and min_id are deprecated for this endpoint; use min_tag_id and max_tag_id instead",
    "next_max_id": "any_number",
    "next_min_id": "any_number",
    "min_tag_id": "any_number",
    "next_url": "https://api.instagram.com/v1/tags/{hashtag}/media/recent?access_token={my_personal_access-token}"
  },
  "meta": {
    "code": 200
  },
  "data": [
    {
      "attribution": null,
      "tags": [
        "any_tag",
        "any_tag1",
        "any_tag2",
        "any_tag3"
      ],
      "type": "image",
      "location": null,
      "comments": {
        "count": 0,
        "data": []
      },
      "filter": "Normal",
      "created_time": "any_number",
      "link": "any_url",
      "likes": {
        "count": 0,
        "data": []
      },
      "images": {
        "low_resolution": {
          "url": "any_url",
          "width": 320,
          "height": 320
        },
        "thumbnail": {
          "url": "any_url",
          "width": 150,
          "height": 150
        },
        "standard_resolution": {
          "url": "any_url",
          "width": 640,
          "height": 640
        }
      },
      "users_in_photo": [],
      "caption": {
        "created_time": "any_number",
        "text": "any_content",
        "from": {
          "username": "any_username",
          "profile_picture": "any_url",
          "id": "any_number",
          "full_name": "any_full_name"
        },
        "id": "any_number"
      },
      "user_has_liked": false,
      "id": "any_number",
      "user": {
        "username": "any_username",
        "profile_picture": "any_url",
        "id": "any_number",
        "full_name": "any_full_name"
      }
    },

and so on. As You can see, object "data" is an Array, and further we can see object "tags", which is also array. how can I check number elements array of array in C#? i tried like this:

JArray items = (JArray)jsonData["data[0].tags"];
            int length = items.Count;

but it doesn't work. I parse JSON like this:

dynamic jsonData = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<dynamic>(JSON_string);

I catch an exception: "Object reference not set to an instance of an object." — mati199537
– mati199537, Commented Jul 27, 2015 at 17:55

dcastro · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-27 18:01:04Z

3

var token = JToken.Parse(str);
var data = token.Value<JArray>("data");
var tags = data[0].Value<JArray>("tags");
var count = tags.Count;

You can also use a JsonPath:

var token = JToken.Parse(str);
var count = token.SelectTokens("$.data[0].tags[*]").Count();

edited Jul 27, 2015 at 18:01

answered Jul 27, 2015 at 17:54

dcastro

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1 Comment

dcastro Over a year ago

@mati199537 No prob! I added a simpler way, using a JsonPath

Paul Marshall · Accepted Answer · 2023-06-08 11:28:44Z

0

Was working on a similar problem when I found this question. I happened to find a slightly different solution using System.Text.Json which I thought may be useful to any who stumbled across this question as I did:

var jsonObject = JsonNode.Parse(str) as JsonObject;
var tags = jsonObject["data"][0]["tags"] as JsonArray;
var tags = tags.Count;

answered Jun 8, 2023 at 11:28

Paul Marshall

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