Convert Json string to DataTable

Question

I am trying to Convert Json to DataTable. I found success when converting jsonArray to DataTable. However when converting a json string(below):

var r = {'ASSOCIATION_ID':61.0,'DESCRIPTION':'fssESTf64 - false','ACTIVE':true,'MODEL_TYPE':'0','SEARCH_TYPE':'false','CREATED_BY':'1090323','CREATED_DATE':'2015-09-17T14:41:20','LAST_UPDATED_BY':'1090323','LAST_UPDATED_DATE':'2016-02-26T15:55:54'}

I get an error as {"Unexpected JSON token when reading DataTable. Expected StartArray, got StartObject. Path '', line 1, position 1."}

My code is simple:

DataTable a = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DataTable>(r);

Please assist.

Answer 1

Your root JSON container is an object (an unordered collection of comma-separated key/value pairs surrounded by braces - { and } ). Json.NET serializes a DataTable as an array of objects (an ordered collection of comma-separated tokens surrounded by square brackets [ and ] ), with one array entry for each row, as is shown in Serialize a DataSet . Ie the following can be deserialized as a data table:

[
  {
    "ASSOCIATION_ID": 61.0,
    "DESCRIPTION": "fssESTf64 - false",
    "ACTIVE": true,
    "MODEL_TYPE": "0",
    "SEARCH_TYPE": "false",
    "CREATED_BY": "1090323",
    "CREATED_DATE": "2015-09-17T14:41:20",
    "LAST_UPDATED_BY": "1090323",
    "LAST_UPDATED_DATE": "2016-02-26T15:55:54"
  }
]

Thus your JSON cannot be mapped automatically to a DataTable by Json.NET.

If you want, you could deserialize your JSON object as a DataTable with one row. To do that, load it into an intermediate JToken , check if it's an object instead of an array, and if so, wrap it in an array, then deserialize:

var token = JToken.Parse(r);

if (token.Type == JTokenType.Object)
    token = new JArray(token);

var a = token.ToObject<DataTable>();