Parse the JSON Response in C#

Question

I get a json response after making a query to an api.

The JSON is like:

 {
 "results": [
 {
 "alternatives": [
 {
 "confidence": 0.965,
 "transcript": "how do I raise the self esteem of a child in his academic achievement at the same time "
 }
 ],
 "final": true
 },
 {
 "alternatives": [
 {
 "confidence": 0.919,
 "transcript": "it's not me out of ten years of pseudo teaching and helped me realize "
 }
 ],
 "final": true
 },
 {
 "alternatives": [
 {
 "confidence": 0.687,
 "transcript": "is so powerful that it can turn bad morals the good you can turn awful practice and the powerful once they can teams men and transform them into angel "
 }
 ],
 "final": true
 },
 {
 "alternatives": [
 {
 "confidence": 0.278,
 "transcript": "you know if not on purpose Arteaga Williams who got in my mother "
 }
 ],
 "final": true
 },
 {
 "alternatives": [
 {
 "confidence": 0.621,
 "transcript": "for what pink you very much "
 }
 ],
 "final": true
 }
 ],
 "result_index": 0
}

I have to do two things to above json result (I keep it as a string*):

1. Get the transcript part(s) of the json response.

2. Process those strings.

   • I am new to this. Converting to string is only called serialization. Why would deserialization help here ?

Converting to string: I did it using:

 var reader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream());
 responseFromServer = reader.ReadToEnd();

How to achieve this ?

• Sir Rufo: There is no need for deserialization - but it would make your life easier :o)
• wablab: Deserializing the JSON converts it back into a .NET object. You could then access the properties of that object rather than doing a bunch of string parsing. Use a library like Newtonsoft JSON.NET to help with the deserialization.

Answer 1

You could parse the JSON into concrete classes and work with those hereafter.

To do so, you could use a service like json2csharp which generates classes based on the JSON you provided. Alternatively, you could use the Visual Studio built-in feature Paste JSON As Classes:

enter image description here

public class Alternative
{
 public double confidence { get; set; }
 public string transcript { get; set; }
}
public class Result
{
 public List<Alternative> alternatives { get; set; }
 public bool final { get; set; }
}
public class RootObject
{
 public List<Result> results { get; set; }
 public int result_index { get; set; }
}

You can then use JSON.NET to parse the stringified JSON to concrete class instances:

var root = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(responseFromServer);

• Psddp: Impressed by the "Paste JSON as Classes" feature!

Answer 2

You should deserialize this. It's the easiest way to deal with it. Using Json.NET and dynamic that might look like:

dynamic jsonObj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(responseFromServer);
foreach (var result in jsonObj.results) {
 foreach (var alternative in result.alternatives) {
 Console.WriteLine(alternative.transcript);
 }
}

But you might want to make explicit classes for it instead. Then you can do:

MyRootObject root = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MyRootObject>(responseFromServer);

And deal with it like any other .NET object.

• Sir Rufo: With JSON in clipboard VS offers menu Edit/Paste Special/Paste JSON as classes