C# Problem deserialize XML into JSON array

RyanThomas
March 7, 2023
102 views
3 votes
3 Answers

I have the following XML

<table>
    <name>Table 1</name>
    <headers>
        <header>Header 1</header>
        <header>Header 2</header>
    </headers>
    <data>
        <row>
            <row_item>Item 1</row_item>
            <row_item>Item 2</row_item>
        </row>
        <row>
            <row_item>Item 3</row_item>
            <row_item>Item 4</row_item>
        </row>
    </data>
</table>

Now I can deserialize this easy enough using the built in XmlSerializer class using this class.

[JsonObject("table")]
[XmlRoot("table")]
public class Table
{
    [JsonProperty("name")]
    [XmlElement("name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty("headers")]
    [XmlArray("headers"), XmlArrayItem("header")]
    public List<string> Headers { get; set; } = new List<string>();

    [JsonProperty("data")]
    [XmlArray("data"), XmlArrayItem("row")]
    public List<DataRow> Data { get; set; } = new List<DataRow>();

}

public class DataRow
{
    [XmlElement("row_item")]
    public List<string> DataRowItems { get; set; }
}

Now I need to convert this to JSON, I am using Newtonsoft to do this but the problem I am facing is that the current class structure adds "DataRowItems" to the JSON.

{
    "table": [
        {
            "data": [
                {
                    "DataRowItems": [
                        "Item 1",
                        "Item 2"
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "DataRowItems": [
                        "Item 3",
                        "Item 4"
                    ]
                }
            ],
            "headers": [
                "Item 1",
                "Item 2",
                "Item 3"
            ],
            "name": "Some text"
        }
    ]
}

Where as I need to send the data element as an array of array, like this.

{
  "table": [
    {
      "data": [
        ["Item 1", "Item 2", "Item 3"],
        ["Item 4", "Item 5", "Item 6"]
      ],
      "headers": ["Column 1", "Column 2", "Column 3"],
      "name": "Some text"
    }
  ]
}

How can I achieve this? I have been trying with various XML and JSON attributes but can’t seem to get it to work. I have also tried using List<List> instead of List which creates the JSON correctly, but the XML fails to deseralize.

Tags: c#json json.net xml

Answers

Chosen as BEST ANSWER
- RyanThomas
- March 8, 2023 at 10:11 am
- 0 votes
0
Thank you everyone for the suggestions, this was the final setup for property in the class that I used to get it working.
```
    [JsonProperty("data")]
    [XmlArray("data")]
    [XmlArrayItem("row")]
    [XmlArrayItem("row_item", NestingLevel = 1)]
    public List<List<string>> Data { get; set; } = new List<List<string>>();
```
The NestingLevel item was the key to getting row_item to deserialize correctly.

(Edit)

Remove DataRow and put a nested List this way:

    [JsonObject("table")]
    [XmlRoot("table")]
    public class Table
    {
        [JsonProperty("name")]
        [XmlElement("name")]
        public string Name { get; set; }

        [JsonProperty("headers")]
        [XmlArray("headers"), XmlArrayItem("header")]
        public List<string> Headers { get; set; } = new List<string>();

        [JsonProperty("data")]
        [XmlArray("data"), XmlArrayItem("row")]
        public List<List<string>> Data { get; set; } = new List<List<string>>();

    }

I obtained:
{"name":"aaa","headers":["H1","H2","H3"],"data":[["i1","i2"],["i3","i4"]]}

you can try this, you don’t need any custom classes

    XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
    xmlDoc.LoadXml(xml);
    
    var json = JsonConvert.SerializeXmlNode(xmlDoc, Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.None, true);
    var jObj = JObject.Parse(json);

    jObj["headers"] = jObj["headers"]["header"];
    jObj["data"] = new JArray(jObj["data"]["row"].Select(x => x["row_item"]));
    json=jObj.ToString();

output

{
  "name": "Table 1",
  "headers": [
    "Header 1",
    "Header 2"
  ],
  "data": [
    [
      "Item 1",
      "Item 2"
    ],
    [
      "Item 3",
      "Item 4"
    ]
  ]
}

or if you want c# object

DataClass data = jObj.ToObject<DataClass>();

public partial class DataClass
{
    [JsonProperty("name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty("headers")]
    public List<string> Headers { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty("data")]
    public List<List<string>> Data { get; set; }
}

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