how to convert a JSON structure to another and add a extra field in to it

Question

i have json data, which is coming from an API. the structure of json is like this

{
"data": [
    {
        "nameid": "s_10",
        "size": "6.46",
        "name": "abc",
        "children": [
            {
                "nameid": "i_101010",
                "size": "8.84",
                "name": "bcd",
                "children": [
                    {
                        "nameid": "si_10101010",
                        "size": "4.00",
                        "name": "efg",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "nameid": "c_3273",
                                "size": 4,
                                "name": "ttt",
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    {
                        "nameid": "si_10101020",
                        "size": "13.67",
                        "name": "sss",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "nameid": "c_4450",
                                "size": 1,
                                "name": "rrr",
                            },
                            {
                                "nameid": "c_551",

                                "size": 17,
                                "name": "ddd",

                            },

i need to convert it to something like the below structure

  {
"id": 1,
"parentId": "NULL",
"name": "Root",
"size": 5,
"children": [
{
"id": 10,
"parentId": "1",
"name": "En",
"size": 1,
"children": [
 {
  "id": 1010,
  "parentId": "10",
  "name": "Eee",
  "size": 1,
  "children": [
   {
    "id": 101010,
    "parentId": "1010",
    "name": "Enh",
    "size": 5,
    "children": [
     {
      "id": 10101010,
      "parentId": "101010",
      "name": "Ooo",
      "size": 5
     },

so in short, i need to add that field parent id to the first JSON

note: these are partial data, so json may not be a valid one.

Answer 1

If your source and destination object are Typed Class (eg public class FamilyMembers )

Automapper is the best way to achieve this.

http://automapper.org/

Let's say your source 'data" is class Families . You can map Families to FamilyMembers

//specify source, destination
Mapper.CreateMap<Families, FamilyMembers>(); 

//get source data
Families families = GetFamiliesFromAPI(); 

//map each properties of  families to familymembers
FamilyMembers familymembers = Mapper.Map<Families, FamilyMembers>(families); 

ShowFamilyMembersInDataGrid(familymembers);

If you don't want to use Automapper, then go with LINQ

Families families = GetFamiliesFromAPI(); 
families.Select(f => f, new FamilyMembers() {name = f.Name, someProperty = f.someProperty }

Since you have nested JSON object you need to learn how to handle such as "children" member in your source data and map if via LINQ accordingly