Json Object to a Multidimensional C# Array?

Question

Is there a way to convert a Json Object to a Multidimensional C# Array? I know it might be impractical but I can't be bothered to write classes and then deserialize the strings into them.

List<string> ohyeah = (List<string>)JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(g.CommToken);

That returns an Invalid Cast exception!

Example:

{"method":"getCommunicationToken","header":{"uuid":"9B39AAB0-49A6-AC7A-BA74-DE9DA66C62B7","clientRevision":"20100323.02","session":"c0d3e8b5d661f74c68ad72af17aeb5a1","client":"gslite"},"parameters":{"secretKey":"d9b687fa10c927f102cde9c085f9377f"}}

I need to get something like that :

j["method"]; //This will equal to getCommunicationToken
j["header"]["uuid"]; //This will equal to 9B39AAB0-49A6-AC7A-BA74-DE9DA66C62B7

I literally need to parse the json object into an array.

Answer 1

The Parse and SelectToken methods of the JObject class do exactly what you want/need. The Library can be found here: http://json.codeplex.com/releases/view/37810

JObject o = JObject.Parse(@"
{
    ""method"":""getCommunicationToken"",
    ""header"":
    {
        ""uuid"":""9B39AAB0-49A6-AC7A-BA74DE9DA66C62B7"",
        ""clientRevision"":""20100323.02"",
        ""session"":""c0d3e8b5d661f74c68ad72af17aeb5a1"",
        ""client"":""gslite""
    },
    ""parameters"":
    {
        ""secretKey"":""d9b687fa10c927f102cde9c085f9377f""
    }
}");

string method = (string)o.SelectToken("method");
// contains now 'getCommunicationToken'

string uuid = (string)o.SelectToken("header.uuid");
// contains now '9B39AAB0-49A6-AC7A-BA74DE9DA66C62B7'

By the way: This is not a multidimensional array:

j["header"]["uuid"];

You would have those indexers for example in a dictionary with dictionaries as values, like:

Dictionary<string, Dictionary<string, string>> j;

But here you would just have a "depth" of two indexes. If you want a datastructure with indexers in this "jagged array style", you would write a class like:

class JaggedDictionary{
    private Dictionary<string, string> leafs = 
            new Dictionary<string, string>();
    private Dictionary<string, JaggedDictionary> nodes = 
            new Dictionary<string, JaggedDictionary>();

    public object this[string str]
    {
        get
        {
            return nodes.Contains(str) ? nodes[str] : 
                   leafs.Contains(str) ? leafs[str] : null;
        }
        set
        {
            // if value is an instance of JaggedDictionary put it in 'nodes',
            // if it is a string put it in 'leafs'...
        }
    }
}