JSON.net deserializing a complex JSON String into a C# array

Question

I've been at this for a while and am just getting more and more confused and frustrated. In the following code, I'm trying to deserialize into an array of "observations". I've tried quite a few things and I know that the problem is my model, but I'm stumped on how to get to it. Here is the file.

Here is the class structure.

    public class Features
    {
        public int history { get; set; }
    }

    public class Response
    {
        public string version { get; set; }
        public string termsofService { get; set; }
        public Features features { get; set; }
    }

    public class Date
    {
        public string pretty { get; set; }
        public string year { get; set; }
        public string mon { get; set; }
        public string mday { get; set; }
        public string hour { get; set; }
        public string min { get; set; }
        public string tzname { get; set; }
    }

    public class Utcdate
    {
        public string pretty { get; set; }
        public string year { get; set; }
        public string mon { get; set; }
        public string mday { get; set; }
        public string hour { get; set; }
        public string min { get; set; }
        public string tzname { get; set; }
    }

    public class Date2
    {
        public string pretty { get; set; }
        public string year { get; set; }
        public string mon { get; set; }
        public string mday { get; set; }
        public string hour { get; set; }
        public string min { get; set; }
        public string tzname { get; set; }
    }

    public class Utcdate2
    {
        public string pretty { get; set; }
        public string year { get; set; }
        public string mon { get; set; }
        public string mday { get; set; }
        public string hour { get; set; }
        public string min { get; set; }
        public string tzname { get; set; }
    }

    public class Observation
    {
        public Date2 date { get; set; }
        public Utcdate2 utcdate { get; set; }
        public string tempm { get; set; }
        public string tempi { get; set; }
        public string dewptm { get; set; }
        public string dewpti { get; set; }
        public string hum { get; set; }
        public string wspdm { get; set; }
        public string wspdi { get; set; }
        public string wgustm { get; set; }
        public string wgusti { get; set; }
        public string wdird { get; set; }
        public string wdire { get; set; }
        public string pressurem { get; set; }
        public string pressurei { get; set; }
        public string windchillm { get; set; }
        public string windchilli { get; set; }
        public string heatindexm { get; set; }
        public string heatindexi { get; set; }
        public string precip_ratem { get; set; }
        public string precip_ratei { get; set; }
        public string precip_totalm { get; set; }
        public string precip_totali { get; set; }
        public string solarradiation { get; set; }
        public string UV { get; set; }
        public string softwaretype { get; set; }
    }

    public class Date3
    {
        public string pretty { get; set; }
        public string year { get; set; }
        public string mon { get; set; }
        public string mday { get; set; }
        public string hour { get; set; }
        public string min { get; set; }
        public string tzname { get; set; }
    }

    public class Utcdate3
    {
        public string pretty { get; set; }
        public string year { get; set; }
        public string mon { get; set; }
        public string mday { get; set; }
        public string hour { get; set; }
        public string min { get; set; }
        public string tzname { get; set; }
    }

    public class Dailysummary
    {
        public Date3 date { get; set; }
        public Utcdate3 utcdate { get; set; }
        public string meantempm { get; set; }
        public string meantempi { get; set; }
        public string meandewptm { get; set; }
        public string meandewpti { get; set; }
        public string meanwindspdm { get; set; }
        public string meanwindspdi { get; set; }
        public string meanwdire { get; set; }
        public string meanwdird { get; set; }
        public string humidity { get; set; }
        public string maxtempm { get; set; }
        public string maxtempi { get; set; }
        public string mintempm { get; set; }
        public string mintempi { get; set; }
        public string maxhumidity { get; set; }
        public string minhumidity { get; set; }
        public string maxdewptm { get; set; }
        public string maxdewpti { get; set; }
        public string mindewptm { get; set; }
        public string mindewpti { get; set; }
        public string maxpressurem { get; set; }
        public string maxpressurei { get; set; }
        public string minpressurem { get; set; }
        public string minpressurei { get; set; }
        public string maxwspdm { get; set; }
        public string maxwspdi { get; set; }
        public string precipm { get; set; }
        public string precipi { get; set; }
    }

    public class History
    {
        public Date date { get; set; }
        public Utcdate utcdate { get; set; }
        public List<Observation> observations { get; set; }
        public List<Dailysummary> dailysummary { get; set; }
    }

    public class RootObject
    {
        public Response response { get; set; }
        public History history { get; set; }
    }

I'm getting a Null exception which I know means that something isn't formatted correctly, but I'm fairly new to JSON.net

public static void Main (string[] args)
    {

        JObject JsonData = JObject.Parse (File.ReadAllText(@"jsontest.json"));

        JArray Observations = (JArray)JsonData["observations"];

        Console.WriteLine (Observations[1].hum);
    }

Any suggestions on how to get this to work? Thanks guys.

which One You are using Newtonsoft.dll or JavascriptSerializer ? — Aravind, Dec 23 '13 at 4:27

Steve Wellens · Answer 1 · 2013-12-23 04:30:20Z

up vote 0 down vote

You can programatically create your classes here: http://json2csharp.com/

The JSON has to be valid.

answered Dec 23 '13 at 4:30

Steve Wellens
14.5k21135

That's exactly what I used to create those classes – Will Luce Dec 23 '13 at 4:34

I pasted your JSON into the web site and it 'barfed'. The JSON you used to create your classes is not what you have in your question. – Steve Wellens Dec 23 '13 at 5:28

It was a bad copy/paste job for brevity. I edited the post to include the link that I used. – Will Luce Dec 23 '13 at 5:49

add a comment |

Rebornix · Answer 2 · 2013-12-23 04:45:06Z

up vote 1 down vote

It seems the content of the json file is not valid, which may miss a { }.

I have tried this json content and it works.

{"response": {
  "version": "0.1",
  "termsofService": "http://www.wunderground.com/weather/api/d/terms.html",
  "features": {
  "history": 1
 }
 },
 "history": {
  "date": {
   "pretty": "December 18, 2013",
   "year": "2013",
   "mon": "12",
   "mday": "18",
   "hour": "00",
   "min": "00",
   "tzname": "America/Denver"
  }
 }
}

answered Dec 23 '13 at 4:45

Rebornix
507

I edited the post to include to a link to the file I'm grabbing. That was a sloppy copy/paste job on my part. – Will Luce Dec 23 '13 at 5:08

Matt provides the right way to use Json.NET – Rebornix Dec 23 '13 at 5:33

add a comment |

Matt Johnson · Answer 3 · 2013-12-23 08:13:40Z

The JSON you posted doesn't appear to be fully well-formed. Perhaps it got mangled when you posted it.

After fixing that, you should probably deserialize to your objects like this:

RootObject rootObject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(yourJSON);

In most cases, you won't need to work with JObject and JArray directly.

Before doing that, I recommend going through your C# classes and consolidating the duplicates. Just because it was generated, doesn't mean that's the best way to consume it.

As an aside - that's a really awful way to pass dates. I'm really surprised that WUnderground doesn't use the ISO8601 format for dates in their API. At any rate, you may want to consider at some point writing a custom JsonConverter to get these into a normal DateTime type, or into a ZonedDateTime from the Noda Time project. Otherwise, they may be quite difficult to use in C#.

EDIT

I cleaned it up for you. Well, mostly anyway. Happy Holidays.

public class HistoryResponseContainer
{
    public ResponseInfo response { get; set; }
    public HistoryInfo history { get; set; }
}

public class ResponseInfo
{
    public string version { get; set; }
    public string termsofService { get; set; }
    public Dictionary<string, int> features { get; set; }
}

public class HistoryInfo
{
    public WUDate date { get; set; }
    public WUDate utcdate { get; set; }
    public Observation[] observations { get; set; }
    public Dailysummary[] dailysummary { get; set; }
}

public class WUDate
{
    public string pretty { get; set; }
    public string year { get; set; }
    public string mon { get; set; }
    public string mday { get; set; }
    public string hour { get; set; }
    public string min { get; set; }
    public string tzname { get; set; }

    public DateTime Value
    {
        get
        {
            int year = int.Parse(this.year);
            int month = int.Parse(this.mon);
            int day = int.Parse(this.mday);
            int hour = int.Parse(this.hour);
            int minute = int.Parse(this.min);

            var kind = this.tzname == "UTC"
                ? DateTimeKind.Utc
                : DateTimeKind.Unspecified;

            return new DateTime(year, month, day, hour, minute, 0, kind);
        }
    }
}

public class Observation
{
    public WUDate date { get; set; }
    public WUDate utcdate { get; set; }
    public string tempm { get; set; }
    public string tempi { get; set; }
    public string dewptm { get; set; }
    public string dewpti { get; set; }
    public string hum { get; set; }
    public string wspdm { get; set; }
    public string wspdi { get; set; }
    public string wgustm { get; set; }
    public string wgusti { get; set; }
    public string wdird { get; set; }
    public string wdire { get; set; }
    public string vism { get; set; }
    public string visi { get; set; }
    public string pressurem { get; set; }
    public string pressurei { get; set; }
    public string windchillm { get; set; }
    public string windchilli { get; set; }
    public string heatindexm { get; set; }
    public string heatindexi { get; set; }
    public string precipm { get; set; }
    public string precipi { get; set; }
    public string conds { get; set; }
    public string icon { get; set; }
    public string fog { get; set; }
    public string rain { get; set; }
    public string snow { get; set; }
    public string hail { get; set; }
    public string thunder { get; set; }
    public string tornado { get; set; }
    public string metar { get; set; }
}

public class Dailysummary
{
    public WUDate date { get; set; }
    public string fog { get; set; }
    public string rain { get; set; }
    public string snow { get; set; }
    public string snowfallm { get; set; }
    public string snowfalli { get; set; }
    public string monthtodatesnowfallm { get; set; }
    public string monthtodatesnowfalli { get; set; }
    public string since1julsnowfallm { get; set; }
    public string since1julsnowfalli { get; set; }
    public string snowdepthm { get; set; }
    public string snowdepthi { get; set; }
    public string hail { get; set; }
    public string thunder { get; set; }
    public string tornado { get; set; }
    public string meantempm { get; set; }
    public string meantempi { get; set; }
    public string meandewptm { get; set; }
    public string meandewpti { get; set; }
    public string meanpressurem { get; set; }
    public string meanpressurei { get; set; }
    public string meanwindspdm { get; set; }
    public string meanwindspdi { get; set; }
    public string meanwdire { get; set; }
    public string meanwdird { get; set; }
    public string meanvism { get; set; }
    public string meanvisi { get; set; }
    public string humidity { get; set; }
    public string maxtempm { get; set; }
    public string maxtempi { get; set; }
    public string mintempm { get; set; }
    public string mintempi { get; set; }
    public string maxhumidity { get; set; }
    public string minhumidity { get; set; }
    public string maxdewptm { get; set; }
    public string maxdewpti { get; set; }
    public string mindewptm { get; set; }
    public string mindewpti { get; set; }
    public string maxpressurem { get; set; }
    public string maxpressurei { get; set; }
    public string minpressurem { get; set; }
    public string minpressurei { get; set; }
    public string maxwspdm { get; set; }
    public string maxwspdi { get; set; }
    public string minwspdm { get; set; }
    public string minwspdi { get; set; }
    public string maxvism { get; set; }
    public string maxvisi { get; set; }
    public string minvism { get; set; }
    public string minvisi { get; set; }
    public string gdegreedays { get; set; }
    public string heatingdegreedays { get; set; }
    public string coolingdegreedays { get; set; }
    public string precipm { get; set; }
    public string precipi { get; set; }
    public string precipsource { get; set; }
    public string heatingdegreedaysnormal { get; set; }
    public string monthtodateheatingdegreedays { get; set; }
    public string monthtodateheatingdegreedaysnormal { get; set; }
    public string since1sepheatingdegreedays { get; set; }
    public string since1sepheatingdegreedaysnormal { get; set; }
    public string since1julheatingdegreedays { get; set; }
    public string since1julheatingdegreedaysnormal { get; set; }
    public string coolingdegreedaysnormal { get; set; }
    public string monthtodatecoolingdegreedays { get; set; }
    public string monthtodatecoolingdegreedaysnormal { get; set; }
    public string since1sepcoolingdegreedays { get; set; }
    public string since1sepcoolingdegreedaysnormal { get; set; }
    public string since1jancoolingdegreedays { get; set; }
    public string since1jancoolingdegreedaysnormal { get; set; }
}

Usage:

string json = File.ReadAllText("jsontest.json");

var container = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<HistoryResponseContainer>(json);

foreach (var observation in container.history.observations)
{
    // whatever you want to do with each observation

    // I also gave you easier access to the date. not perfect, but better.
    DateTime date = observation.date.Value;
    DateTime utc = observation.utcdate.Value;
}

Thank you for that @Matt. Now, how about actually getting down to the list? — Will Luce, Dec 23 '13 at 6:06
1) Model your C# to be closer to the JSON. There's no need for date1, date2, date3, etc. Consolidate. 2) Make sure you can deserialize without error. 3) Just navigate through the resulting C# classes to pull out the bits you need. — Matt Johnson, Dec 23 '13 at 6:36
I'm really glad you mentioned the date/time. The goal here is to match a time stamp and store all the data from that "observation". I'm pretty lost with how to do that at all right now. I'm leaning toward going for the xml over the JSON because I don't have the JSON experience. But, I know JSON is faster. — Will Luce, Dec 23 '13 at 6:38

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