C# Not able to read json Response from API Call

Question

I call a Weather API - which returns Json response. My C# Code-

           Uri uri1 = new Uri(APIUrl);
           WebRequest webRequest1 = WebRequest.Create(uri1);
           WebResponse response1 = webRequest1.GetResponse();
           StreamReader streamReader1 = new StreamReader(response1.GetResponseStream());
           String responseData1 = streamReader1.ReadToEnd().ToString();
           dynamic data1 = JObject.Parse(responseData1 )

I get Exception while calling Parse as below- An unhandled exception of type 'Newtonsoft.Json.JsonReaderException' occurred in Newtonsoft.Json.dll

Additional information: Error reading JObject from JsonReader. Current JsonReader item is not an object: StartArray. Path '', line 1, position 1.

My Analysis- responseData1 has json strings as-

responseData1="[{\"locationName\":\"Bangalore\",\"subLocationName\":null,\"gid\":\"43295\",\"subStateID\":null,\"subStateName\":null,\"stateID\":\"II\",\"stateName\":\"Indien\",\"latitude\":12.9667,\"longitude\":77.5833,\"altitude\":900,\"zip\":null}\n, {\"match\":\"yes\"}]"

If i check this json in http://jsonlint.com/ - It says valid json.

If i hit my APIUrl directly in browser- repose in browser is as below-

[{"locationName":"Bangalore","subLocationName":null,"gid":"43295","subStateID":null,"subStateName":null,"stateID":"II","stateName":"Indien","latitude":12.9667,"longitude":77.5833,"altitude":900,"zip":null}, {"match":"yes"}]

My aim is to read the value of property "gid" from the above json. Can someone help me here? Thanks!

Answer 1

You're using the JObject class, when you should be using the JArray class, because the JSON you're attempting to parse is an array - not an object:

http://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/ParseJsonArray.htm

Answer 2

It would be better to create a model for this. Then you can simply tell Newtonsoft to deserialize the JSON string instead of using a dynamic type.

First, you would need to create a model like this:

public class WeatherData
{
    public string locationName { get; set; }
    public string subLocationName { get; set; }
    public string gid { get; set; }
    public int subStateID { get; set; }
    public string subStateName { get; set; }
    public string stateID { get; set; }
    public string stateName { get; set; }
    public double latitude { get; set; }
    public double longitude { get; set; }
    public int altitude { get; set; }
    public string zip { get; set; }
    public string match { get; set; }
}

Then deserialize the return JSON as follows:

var data1 = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<WeatherData>(responseData1);

Or for an array:

var data1 = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<WeatherData>>(responseData1);