C# convert string to dictionary

Question

I get this response string from the Bitly api:

{ "status_code": 200,
  "status_txt": "OK",
  "data":
    { "long_url": "http:\/\/amazon.de\/",
      "url": "http:\/\/amzn.to\/1mP2o58",
      "hash": "1mP2o58",
      "global_hash": "OjQAE",
      "new_hash": 0
    }
}

How do I convert this string to a dictionary and how do I access the value for the key "url" (without all the \)

Answer 1

This isn't just some ordinary string. This is a data structure in JSON format, a common and well-established format, originally used in Javascript but now rather common as a data transfer mechanism between services and clients.

Rather than reinventing the wheel and parsing the JSON yourself, I suggest you use an existing JSON library for C#, such as JSON.NET, which will eat up that string and parse it into .NET objects for you.

Here's a code sample, taken from JSON.NET's documentation, showing its usage:

string json = @"{
'href': '/account/login.aspx',
'target': '_blank'
 }";

Dictionary<string, string> htmlAttributes =                 
 JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, string>>(json);

Console.WriteLine(htmlAttributes["href"]);
   // /account/login.aspx

Console.WriteLine(htmlAttributes["target"]);
   // _blank