How can I deserialize JSON to a simple Dictionary<string,string> in ASP.NET?

json asp.net-ajax asp.net-3.5 json.net
richardtallent picture richardtallent · Jul 30, 2009 · Viewed 676.8k times · Source

I have a simple key/value list in JSON being sent back to ASP.NET via POST. Example:

{ "key1": "value1", "key2": "value2"}

I AM NOT TRYING TO DESERIALIZE INTO STRONGLY-TYPED .NET OBJECTS

I simply need a plain old Dictionary(Of String, String), or some equivalent (hash table, Dictionary(Of String, Object), old-school StringDictionary--hell, a 2-D array of strings would work for me.

I can use anything available in ASP.NET 3.5, as well as the popular Json.NET (which I'm already using for serialization to the client).

Apparently neither of these JSON libraries have this forehead-slapping obvious capability out of the box--they are totally focused on reflection-based deserialization via strong contracts.

Any ideas?

Limitations:

  1. I don't want to implement my own JSON parser
  2. Can't use ASP.NET 4.0 yet
  3. Would prefer to stay away from the older, deprecated ASP.NET class for JSON

Answer

James Newton-King picture James Newton-King · Jul 31, 2009

Json.NET does this...

string json = @"{""key1"":""value1"",""key2"":""value2""}";

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

More examples: Serializing Collections with Json.NET

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