object to deserialize has a C# keyword

Question

With the JSON defined as it is, in order to deserialize it as an object, I'd need to create a property on my class called "event", which is a C# keyword. Is there another way to tell it what the field names will be?

Here's an example of the JSON:

{ event: 123 data: {"data":"0D0401","ttl":"60","published_at":"2014-04-16T18:04:42.446Z","id":"48ff6f065067555031192387"} }

Here are my classes that won't compile because of the keyword:

public class Event
{
    public int event { get; set; }
    public EventDetail data { get; set; }
}

public class EventDetail
{
    public string data { get; set; }
    public string ttl { get; set; }
    public DateTime published_at { get; set; }
    public string id { get; set; }
}

Answer 1

Change

public class Event
{
    public int event { get; set; }
    public EventDetail data { get; set; }
}

to this

public class Event
{
    public int @event { get; set; }
    public EventDetail data { get; set; }
}

This tip shows the quirks involved with escaping in C#:

• character literal escaping :

eg '\\'', '\\n', '\€' (the Euro € currency sign), '\\x9'

(equivalent to \\t)) - literal string escaping:

eg "...\\t...\@...\\U000000041...\\x9..."

• verbatim string escaping:

eg @"...""..."

• string.Format escaping:

eg "...{{...}}..."

• keyword escaping:

eg @if (for if as identifier)

• identifier escaping:

eg i\d (for id)

Answer 2

Try using the [DataContract(Name = "@event")] attribute on the relevant property. Then it will (de)serialize correctly, and you can rename the property so that it compiles.

Answer 3

I was able to just capitalize the "e", and it still works. Looks like the parsing mechanism is case-insensitive.

Answer 4

Just in any case someone revisits this... in DotNet 3.1 using System.Text.Json.Serialization use the attribute

[JsonPropertyName("TheNameItHasInJsonFile")]
public int Something {get;set;}