c# - Parse json string using JSON.NET

Question

I have a string like the following in C#. I need to loop through and create an HTML table output. I tried with JSON.NET but couldn't figure out how to retrieve the keys (Name, Age & Job).

string data = "{items:[
{'Name':'AAA','Age':'22','Job':'PPP'}
,{'Name':'BBB','Age':'25','Job':'QQQ'}
,{'Name':'CCC','Age':'38','Job':'RRR'}]}";

The table format is

.........................  
| Name  | Age   | Job   |  
.........................  
| AAA   | 22    | PPP   |  
.........................  
| BBBB  | 25    | QQQ   |  
.........................  
| CCC   | 28    | RRR   |  
.........................   

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

---

The code provided by Dave is the ideal solution here.. but it work for .NET 4.0.. I have used following code with JSON.NET for .NET 3.5

using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;

string jsonString = "{items:[{'Name':'Anz','Age':'29','Job':''},{'Name':'Sanjai','Age':'28','Job':'Developer'},{'Name':'Rajeev','Age':'31','Job':'Designer'}]}";

        JObject root = JObject.Parse(jsonString);

        JArray items = (JArray)root["items"];

        JObject item;
        JToken jtoken;

        for (int i = 0; i < items.Count; i++) //loop through rows
        {
            item = (JObject)items[i];
            jtoken = item.First;

            while (jtoken != null)//loop through columns
            {
                Response.Write(((JProperty)jtoken).Name.ToString() + " : " + ((JProperty)jtoken).Value.ToString() + "<br />");

                jtoken = jtoken.Next;
            }
        }

Answer 1

You can use .NET 4's dynamic type and built-in JavaScriptSerializer to do that. Something like this, maybe:

string json = "{"items":[{"Name":"AAA","Age":"22","Job":"PPP"},{"Name":"BBB","Age":"25","Job":"QQQ"},{"Name":"CCC","Age":"38","Job":"RRR"}]}";

var jss = new JavaScriptSerializer();

dynamic data = jss.Deserialize<dynamic>(json);

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

sb.Append("<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
");

// Build the header based on the keys in the
//  first data item.
foreach (string key in data["items"][0].Keys) {
        sb.AppendFormat("      <th>{0}</th>
", key);
}

sb.Append("    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
");

foreach (Dictionary<string, object> item in data["items"]) {
    sb.Append("    <tr>
");

    foreach (string val in item.Values) {
        sb.AppendFormat("      <td>{0}</td>
", val);
    }
}

sb.Append("    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>");

string myTable = sb.ToString();

At the end, myTable will hold a string that looks like this:

<table>
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Name</th>
            <th>Age</th>
            <th>Job</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>AAA</td>
            <td>22</td>
            <td>PPP</td>
        <tr>
            <td>BBB</td>
            <td>25</td>
            <td>QQQ</td>
        <tr>
            <td>CCC</td>
            <td>38</td>
            <td>RRR</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>