How can I deserialize JSON with dynamic key names in C#?

Deserializing Child Objects with Dynamic Key Names

Introduction

Serializing JSON data with varying key names poses a challenge in deserialization. This article explores a solution using a dynamic property pattern in C#.

Problem Statement

Considering the JSON data below, how can we deserialize it while maintaining the dynamic "numeric" keys?

{
    "users" : {
        "100034" : {
            "name"  : "tom",
            "state" : "WA",
            "id"    : "cedf-c56f-18a4-4b1"
        },
        "10045" : {
            "name"  : "steve",
            "state" : "NY",
            "id"    : "ebb2-92bf-3062-7774"
        },
        "12345" : {
            "name"  : "mike",
            "state" : "MA",
            "id"    : "fb60-b34f-6dc8-aaf7"
        }
    }
}

Solution

Dynamic Property Pattern

We can represent the varying keys using a Dictionary<string, T> where T is a class containing the child object data. In this case, we declare the following classes:

class RootObject
{
    public Dictionary<string, User> users { get; set; }
}

class User
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public string state { get; set; }
    public string id { get; set; }
}

Deserialization

To deserialize the JSON using the dynamic property pattern, we use the following code:

RootObject obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(json);

This creates an instance of RootObject, with a Dictionary<string, User> property named users populated with the deserialized child objects.

Accessing Object Data

Now, we can access each child object using their respective keys by iterating over the users dictionary:

foreach (string key in root.users.Keys)
{
    User user = root.users[key];
    // Access user properties using user.name, user.state, user.id
}

Demo

The following C# code demonstrates the entire process:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string json = @"
        {
            ""users"": {
                ""10045"": {
                    ""name"": ""steve"",
                    ""state"": ""NY"",
                    ""id"": ""ebb2-92bf-3062-7774""
                },
                ""12345"": {
                    ""name"": ""mike"",
                    ""state"": ""MA"",
                    ""id"": ""fb60-b34f-6dc8-aaf7""
                },
                ""100034"": {
                    ""name"": ""tom"",
                    ""state"": ""WA"",
                    ""id"": ""cedf-c56f-18a4-4b1""
                }
            }
        }";

        RootObject root = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(json);

        // Iterate over users and print their data
        foreach (string key in root.users.Keys)
        {
            User user = root.users[key];
            Console.WriteLine("key: " + key);
            Console.WriteLine("name: " + user.name);
            Console.WriteLine("state: " + user.state);
            Console.WriteLine("id: " + user.id);
            Console.WriteLine();
        }
    }
}

Output

key: 10045
name: steve
state: NY
id: ebb2-92bf-3062-7774

key: 12345
name: mike
state: MA
id: fb60-b34f-6dc8-aaf7

key: 100034
name: tom
state: WA
id: cedf-c56f-18a4-4b1

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