Working with JSON in C# ASP NET Core without deserialization

Question

I would like to know if there is a quicker and direct way to read and write in C# ASP NET Core without having to create classes of JSON data models.

Consider the following JSON data received from an API. Is there a way to read fields as strings directly without having to deserialize them using JsonSerializer?

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "100285832430"
    },
    {
      "id": "102602230220"
    }
  ],
  "paging": {
    "cursors": {
      "before": "MTAwMTIxMDMyNDMw",
      "after": "MTAyNjY4NzAyMjIw"
    }
  }
}

Thank you

This is a string. So, what do you want to do with it? An "intermediate" solution between making Model classes and not parsing at all would be to use JObject or dynamic. But I would BenchmarkDotnet any solution against each other. Results may be surprising. — Fildor
– Fildor, Commented Dec 23, 2021 at 7:28
You can parse your json into dynamic without classes. Sometimes I found it useful Example — Georgy Tarasov
– Georgy Tarasov, Commented Dec 23, 2021 at 7:33

sommmen · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-23 07:34:55Z

1

You can very easily copy some json text and then translate it to a model.

Or use something like http://www.quicktype.io

You can also use an anonymous object:

https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/DeserializeAnonymousType.htm

Or even a dynamic

https://stackoverflow.com/a/63457332/4122889

Btw, You can also read partial json if you're dealing with large datasets:

https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/SerializingJSONFragments.htm

I gues you could also use regex to parse the string or write custom logic - but ofcourse i would not recommend that.

For example: \"id\": \"([0-9]*)\" to get all id's.

This however is not faster for development and i doubt it'll be faster for the app. Just stick with models and json. I'm not sure about your setup but perhaps there are things to automate if you have a lot of models?

answered Dec 23, 2021 at 7:34

sommmen

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1 Comment

Rizwan Over a year ago

Thanks a lot. I was aware of Paste Special in VS however this dynamic thing is what I was looking for.

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