Deserialize JSON into C# dynamic object?

You can do this using System.Web.Helpers.Json - its Decode method returns a dynamic object which you can traverse as you like.

It's included in the System.Web.Helpers assembly (.NET 4.0).

var dynamicObject = Json.Decode(jsonString);

It's pretty simple using Json.NET:

dynamic stuff = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject("{ 'Name': 'Jon Smith', 'Address': { 'City': 'New York', 'State': 'NY' }, 'Age': 42 }");

string name = stuff.Name;
string address = stuff.Address.City;

Also using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq :

dynamic stuff = JObject.Parse("{ 'Name': 'Jon Smith', 'Address': { 'City': 'New York', 'State': 'NY' }, 'Age': 42 }");

string name = stuff.Name;
string address = stuff.Address.City;

.Net 4.0 has a built-in library to do this:

using System.Web.Script.Serialization;
JavaScriptSerializer jss = new JavaScriptSerializer();
var d=jss.Deserialize<dynamic>(str);

This is the simplest way.

JsonFx can deserialize json into dynamic objects.

https://github.com/jsonfx/jsonfx

I made a new version of the DynamicJsonConverter that uses Expando Objects. I used expando objects because I wanted to Serialize the dynamic back into json using Json.net.

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.Dynamic;
using System.Web.Script.Serialization;

public static class DynamicJson
{
    public static dynamic Parse(string json)
    {
        JavaScriptSerializer jss = new JavaScriptSerializer();
        jss.RegisterConverters(new JavaScriptConverter[] { new DynamicJsonConverter() });

        dynamic glossaryEntry = jss.Deserialize(json, typeof(object)) as dynamic;
        return glossaryEntry;
    }

    class DynamicJsonConverter : JavaScriptConverter
    {
        public override object Deserialize(IDictionary<string, object> dictionary, Type type, JavaScriptSerializer serializer)
        {
            if (dictionary == null)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("dictionary");

            var result = ToExpando(dictionary);

            return type == typeof(object) ? result : null;
        }

        private static ExpandoObject ToExpando(IDictionary<string, object> dictionary)
        {
            var result = new ExpandoObject();
            var dic = result as IDictionary<String, object>;

            foreach (var item in dictionary)
            {
                var valueAsDic = item.Value as IDictionary<string, object>;
                if (valueAsDic != null)
                {
                    dic.Add(item.Key, ToExpando(valueAsDic));
                    continue;
                }
                var arrayList = item.Value as ArrayList;
                if (arrayList != null && arrayList.Count > 0)
                {
                    dic.Add(item.Key, ToExpando(arrayList));
                    continue;
                }

                dic.Add(item.Key, item.Value);
            }
            return result;
        }

        private static ArrayList ToExpando(ArrayList obj)
        {
            ArrayList result = new ArrayList();

            foreach (var item in obj)
            {
                var valueAsDic = item as IDictionary<string, object>;
                if (valueAsDic != null)
                {
                    result.Add(ToExpando(valueAsDic));
                    continue;
                }

                var arrayList = item as ArrayList;
                if (arrayList != null && arrayList.Count > 0)
                {
                    result.Add(ToExpando(arrayList));
                    continue;
                }

                result.Add(item);
            }
            return result;
        }

        public override IDictionary<string, object> Serialize(object obj, JavaScriptSerializer serializer)
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        public override IEnumerable<Type> SupportedTypes
        {
            get { return new ReadOnlyCollection<Type>(new List<Type>(new[] { typeof(object) })); }
        }
    }
}  

Simple "string json data" to object without any third party dll

WebClient client = new WebClient();
string getString = client.DownloadString("https://graph.facebook.com/zuck");


JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer(); 
dynamic item = serializer.Deserialize<object>(getString);
string name = item["name"];

//note: JavaScriptSerializer in this namespaces
//System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer 

Nikhil Kothari blogged about doing this. He included a link to his library which provides a dynamic implementation of a REST client, which works on JSON data. He also has a JSON client that works off strings of JSON data directly.

For that I would use JSON.NET to do the low-level parsing of the JSON stream and then build up the object hierarchy out of instances of the ExpandoObject class.

Its probably a little late to help you but the object you want DynamicJSONObject is included in the System.Web.Helpers.dll from the ASP.NET Web Pages package, which is part of WebMatrix.

There is a lightweight json library for C# called SimpleJson which can be found at http://simplejson.codeplex.com https://github.com/facebook-csharp-sdk/simple-json

It supports .net 3.5+, silverlight and windows phone 7.

Supports dynamic for .net 4.0

Can also be installed as a nuget package

Install-Package SimpleJson

Simplest way is

Just include this dll

use the code like this

dynamic json = new JDynamic("{a:'abc'}");
//json.a is a string "abc"

dynamic json = new JDynamic("{a:3.1416}");
//json.a is 3.1416m

dynamic json = new JDynamic("{a:1}");
//json.a is

dynamic json = new JDynamic("[1,2,3]");
/json.Length/json.Count is 3
//And you can use json[0]/ json[2] to get the elements

dynamic json = new JDynamic("{a:[1,2,3]}");
//json.a.Length /json.a.Count is 3.
//And you can use  json.a[0]/ json.a[2] to get the elements

dynamic json = new JDynamic("[{b:1},{c:1}]");
//json.Length/json.Count is 2.
//And you can use the  json[0].b/json[1].c to get the num.

You can extend the JavaScriptSerializer to recursively copy the dictionary it created to expando object(s) and then use them dynamically:

static class JavaScriptSerializerExtensions
{
    public static dynamic DeserializeDynamic(this JavaScriptSerializer serializer, string value)
    {
        var dictionary = serializer.Deserialize<IDictionary<string, object>>(value);
        return GetExpando(dictionary);
    }

    private static ExpandoObject GetExpando(IDictionary<string, object> dictionary)
    {
        var expando = (IDictionary<string, object>)new ExpandoObject();

        foreach (var item in dictionary)
        {
            var innerDictionary = item.Value as IDictionary<string, object>;
            if (innerDictionary != null)
            {
                expando.Add(item.Key, GetExpando(innerDictionary));
            }
            else
            {
                expando.Add(item.Key, item.Value);
            }
        }

        return (ExpandoObject)expando;
    }
}

Then you just need to having a using statement for the namespace you defined the extension in (consider just defining them in System.Web.Script.Serialization... another trick is to not use a namespace, then you don't need the using statement at all) and you can consume them like so:

var serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
var value = serializer.DeserializeDynamic("{ 'Name': 'Jon Smith', 'Address': { 'City': 'New York', 'State': 'NY' }, 'Age': 42 }");

var name = (string)value.Name; // Jon Smith
var age = (int)value.Age;      // 42

var address = value.Address;
var city = (string)address.City;   // New York
var state = (string)address.State; // NY

Another way using Newtonsoft.Json:

dynamic stuff = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject("{ color: 'red', value: 5 }");
string color = stuff.color;
int value = stuff.value;