JSON deserialization - Map array indices to properties with JSON.NET

Question

I want to deserialize a 2-dimensional array to a collection of .net objects. The reason is, array syntax will be easier for my user to work with in an input file. So I just want to map the indices of the arrays to specific properties of my target type.

E.G. With:

[
     ["John", "Smith", "23"],
     ["Paula", "Martin", "54]
]

I would get two instances of a Person:

public class Person {
    public string First {get;set;}
    public string Last {get;set;}
    public string Age {get;set;}
}

where index 0 of an inner array maps to First, index 1 maps to Last, and index 2 maps to Age;

Is there a way to extend Json.NET so that I can do the mapping during deserialization so the implementation details are hidden? I have been playing around with a custom JsonConverter but I haven't found much info on how to use it.

Edit: Specifically, I'm not sure if JsonConverter is the right thing to use, and I'm having trouble figuring out how to implement CanConvert and how to use the parameters passed to the ReadJson method.

Answer 1

You can do this with a JsonConverter. A simple converter for this purpose would be:

public class PersonConverter : JsonConverter
{
    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        return objectType == typeof(Person);
    }

    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        if (reader.TokenType == JsonToken.Null)
            return null;
        var array = JArray.Load(reader);
        var person = (existingValue as Person ?? new Person());
        person.First = (string)array.ElementAtOrDefault(0);
        person.Last = (string)array.ElementAtOrDefault(1);
        person.Age = (string)array.ElementAtOrDefault(2);
        return person;
    }

    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        var person = (Person)value;
        serializer.Serialize(writer, new[] { person.First, person.Last, person.Age });
    }
}

If the specific properties have non-primitive types, you can use JToken.ToObject<T>(JsonSerializer) to deserialize them to the required type:

person.First = array.ElementAtOrDefault(0)?.ToObject<string>(serializer);

Then you can apply it to your class:

[JsonConverter(typeof(PersonConverter))]
public class Person
{
    public string First { get; set; }
    public string Last { get; set; }
    public string Age { get; set; }
}

Or use it in settings:

var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings { Converters = new [] { new PersonConverter() } };
var list = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<Person>>(json, settings);