json.net map elements to collection

Question

I get a json object that looks like the following.

{
    "result": {
        "status": 1,
        "teams": [
            {
                "team_id": 1838315,
                "name": "Team Secret",
                "tag": "Secret",
                "time_created": 1408993713,
                "rating": "inactive",
                "logo": 543025270456493060,
                "logo_sponsor": 540768028333677400,
                "country_code": "",
                "url": "http://www.teamsecret.gg/",
                "games_played_with_current_roster": 0,
                "player_0_account_id": 41231571,
                "player_1_account_id": 73562326,
                "player_2_account_id": 82262664,
                "player_3_account_id": 86745912,
                "player_4_account_id": 87278757,
                "admin_account_id": 5390881,
                "league_id_0": 1803,
                "league_id_1": 1886,
                "league_id_2": 1936,
                "league_id_3": 1942,
                "league_id_4": 2129,
                "league_id_5": 2140,
                "league_id_6": 2158,
                "league_id_7": 2339,
                "league_id_8": 2418,
                "league_id_9": 2661,
                "league_id_10": 2877
            }
        ]
    }
}

I want to use the Newtonsoft json.net libaray to deserialize the object. Most of it is easy but i am not really sure how to handle the player_X_account_id and the league_id_X.

Both have a more or less unlimited amount of elements. But as the are not mapped as a list but single elements I am not really sure how to map them into my .Net Object.

I could create a hundred members of each sort but that wouldn't be especially nice. Preferable i would map them to some sort of Collection, but i have no idea how to accomplish or if it is even possible.

Any idea how to do that?

EDIT: I have no control over the json object i get, it's a call to the SteamWebAPI

Answer 1

You can use extension data feature of JSON.NET :

public class Team
{
    public int Team_Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Tag { get; set; }
    public string Url { get; set; }
    //other properties

    [JsonExtensionData]
    public IDictionary<string, JToken> AdditionalData { get; set; }
}

Then you can check the properties for league and player ids by enumerating AdditionalData property.

Answer 2

In a perfect world you would have control over the JSON structure that you're receiving and you could make it look like this

..."league_id" [['1803','1886','1936']]... 

instead of that league_id_x thing that you got going on but I don't know if you got control over that.

In the other hand you could use dynamic variables:

dynamic jsonDe = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json);

But it has many downfalls as well.

Answer 3

I think you can convert it to an dictionary object and access the data.

Dictionary<string, string> values = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, string>>(json);

foreach (KeyValuePair<string, object> data in values)
{
   var key=data.key;
   var value=data.value;
   if(key =="teams")
    {
     foreach(KeyValuePair<string, object> team in data )
      {
        //do your stuffs here................
       }
     }
}

But it will be good for you if you keep the player_X_account_id and the league_id_X in teams as object like :

"teams": [
    {
      your data......,
     "players":{
        "player_0_account_id": 41231571,
        "player_1_account_id": 73562326,
        "player_2_account_id": 82262664,
        "player_3_account_id": 86745912,
        "player_4_account_id": 87278757,
        }
        "admin_account_id": 5390881,
      "league":{
        "league_id_0": 1803,
        "league_id_1": 1886,
        "league_id_2": 1936,
        "league_id_3": 1942,
        "league_id_4": 2129,
        "league_id_5": 2140,
        "league_id_6": 2158,
        "league_id_7": 2339,
        "league_id_8": 2418,
        "league_id_9": 2661,
        "league_id_10": 2877
      }
    }
]