Deserialize JSON Object into Class

Question

I'm having a little trouble deserializing a JSON object to a class (using JSON.NET), and hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Below is a snippet of code I'm trying, and been testing at dotnetfiddle

Here's a sample of the JSON:

{
    "`LCA0001": {
        "23225007190002": "1",
        "23249206670003": "1",
        "01365100070018": "5"
    },
    "`LCA0003": {
        "23331406670018": "1",
        "24942506670004": "1"
    },
    "`LCA0005": {
        "01365100070018": "19"
    }
}

I'm trying to use this code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Newtonsoft.Json;

public class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {

        string json = "{\"`LCA0001\": {\"23225007190002\": \"1\",\"23249206670003\": \"1\",\"01365100070018\": \"5\"},\"`LCA0003\": {\"23331406670018\": \"1\",\"24942506670004\": \"1\"},\"`LCA0005\": {\"01365100070018\": \"19\"}}";
        Console.WriteLine(json);
        Console.WriteLine();

        //This works
        Console.Write("Deserialize without class");
        var root = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, Dictionary<string, int>>>(json);
        foreach (var locationKvp in root)
        {
            foreach (var skuKvp in locationKvp.Value)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("location: " + locationKvp.Key + ", sku: " +  skuKvp.Key + ", qty: " + skuKvp.Value);
            }
        }

        //Why doesn't this work?
        Console.Write("\nDeserialize with class");      
        var root2 = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<InventoryLocations>(json);
        foreach (var locationKvp in root2.InventoryLocation)
        {
            foreach (var skuKvp in locationKvp.Value)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("location: " + locationKvp.Key + ", sku: " +  skuKvp.Key + ", qty: " + skuKvp.Value);
            }
        }
    }
}

class InventoryLocations
{
    public Dictionary<Location, Dictionary<Sku, Qty>> InventoryLocation { get; set; }
}

public class Location
{
    public string location { get; set; }
}

public class Sku
{
    public string sku { get; set; }
}

public class Qty
{
    public int qty { get; set; }
}

Is there a reason why deserializing into a Class doesn't work? Am I just defining the classes incorrectly?

Answer 1

I see two problems here: one is using classes as the dictionary keys - the JSON has simple strings there (and cannot have anything else really), so that won't work.

The second problem is that deserialization of JSON to classes works by matching keys to properties - so it converts something like

{
    "prop1": "value1",
    "prop2": "value2"
}

to an instance of:

public class MyClass {
   public string prop1 { get; set; }
   public string prop2 { get; set; }
}

In your case this cannot work because in your JSON all keys are not valid property names. You have to stick with the deserialization to a dictionary