How can I deserialize JSON with C#?

System.Text.Json

.NET core 3.0 comes with System.Text.Json built-in which means you can deserialize/serialize JSON without using a third-party library.

Serialize/Deserialize

To serialize your class(es) to JSON string:

var json = JsonSerializer.Serialize(model);

To deserialize the JSON into a strongly typed class:

var model = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Model>(json);

Parse (.NET 6)

.NET 6 introduced the System.Text.Json.Nodes namespace which enables DOM parsing, navigation and manipulation in a similar manner to Newtonsoft.Json using the new classes JsonObject, JsonArray, JsonValue, and JsonNode.

// JsonObject parse DOM
var jsonObject = JsonNode.Parse(jsonString).AsObject();
// read data from DOM
string name = jsonObject["Name"].ToString();
DateTime date = (DateTime)jsonObject["Date"];
var people = jsonObject["People"].Deserialize<List<Person>>();

Similar methods apply to JsonArray. This answer provides more details on JsonObject.

One thing to note is that System.Text.Json does not automatically handle camelCase JSON properties when using your own code (however, it does when using MVC/WebAPI requests and the model binder).

To resolve this you need to pass JsonSerializerOptions as a parameter.

JsonSerializerOptions options = new JsonSerializerOptions
{        
    PropertyNamingPolicy = JsonNamingPolicy.CamelCase,  // set camelCase       
    WriteIndented = true                                // write pretty json
};

// pass options to serializer
var json = JsonSerializer.Serialize(order, options);
// pass options to deserializer
var order = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Order>(json, options);

System.Text.Json is also available for .Net Framework and .Net Standard as a Nu-get package System.Text.Json

System.Json works now...

Install nuget https://www.nuget.org/packages/System.Json

PM> Install-Package System.Json -Version 4.5.0

Sample:

// PM>Install-Package System.Json -Version 4.5.0

using System;
using System.Json;

namespace NetCoreTestConsoleApp
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Note that JSON keys are case sensitive, a is not same as A.

            // JSON Sample
            string jsonString = "{\"a\": 1,\"b\": \"string value\",\"c\":[{\"Value\": 1}, {\"Value\": 2,\"SubObject\":[{\"SubValue\":3}]}]}";

            // You can use the following line in a beautifier/JSON formatted for better view
            // {"a": 1,"b": "string value","c":[{"Value": 1}, {"Value": 2,"SubObject":[{"SubValue":3}]}]}

            /* Formatted jsonString for viewing purposes:
            {
               "a":1,
               "b":"string value",
               "c":[
                  {
                     "Value":1
                  },
                  {
                     "Value":2,
                     "SubObject":[
                        {
                           "SubValue":3
                        }
                     ]
                  }
               ]
            }
            */

            // Verify your JSON if you get any errors here
            JsonValue json = JsonValue.Parse(jsonString);

            // int test
            if (json.ContainsKey("a"))
            {
                int a = json["a"]; // type already set to int
                Console.WriteLine("json[\"a\"]" + " = " + a);
            }

            // string test
            if (json.ContainsKey("b"))
            {
                string b = json["b"];  // type already set to string
                Console.WriteLine("json[\"b\"]" + " = " + b);
            }

            // object array test
            if (json.ContainsKey("c") && json["c"].JsonType == JsonType.Array)
            {
                // foreach loop test
                foreach (JsonValue j in json["c"])
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("j[\"Value\"]" + " = " + j["Value"].ToString());
                }

                // multi level key test
                Console.WriteLine("json[\"c\"][0][\"Value\"]" + " = " + json["c"][0]["Value"].ToString());
                Console.WriteLine("json[\"c\"][0][\"Value\"]" + " = " + json["c"][1]["Value"].ToString());
                Console.WriteLine("json[\"c\"][1][\"SubObject\"][0][\"SubValue\"]" + " = " + json["c"][1]["SubObject"][0]["SubValue"].ToString());
            }

            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.Write("Press any key to exit.");
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

Use this tool to generate a class based in your json:

http://json2csharp.com/

And then use the class to deserialize your json. Example:

public class Account
{
    public string Email { get; set; }
    public bool Active { get; set; }
    public DateTime CreatedDate { get; set; }
    public IList<string> Roles { get; set; }
}


string json = @"{
  'Email': 'james@example.com',
  'Active': true,
  'CreatedDate': '2013-01-20T00:00:00Z',
  'Roles': [
    'User',
    'Admin'
  ]
}";

Account account = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Account>(json);

Console.WriteLine(account.Email);
// james@example.com

References: https://forums.asp.net/t/1992996.aspx?Nested+Json+Deserialization+to+C+object+and+using+that+object https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/DeserializeObject.htm

If JSON is dynamic as below

{
 "Items": [{
        "Name": "Apple",
        "Price": 12.3
    },
    {
        "Name": "Grape",
        "Price": 3.21
    }
   ],
   "Date": "21/11/2010"
}

Then, Once you install NewtonSoft.Json from NuGet and include it in your project, you can serialize it as

string jsonString = "{\"Items\": [{\"Name\": \"Apple\",\"Price\": 12.3},{\"Name\": \"Grape\",\"Price\": 3.21}],\"Date\": \"21/11/2010\"}";

        dynamic DynamicData = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(jsonString);

        Console.WriteLine(   DynamicData.Date); // "21/11/2010"
        Console.WriteLine(DynamicData.Items.Count); // 2
        Console.WriteLine(DynamicData.Items[0].Name); // "Apple"

Source: How to read JSON data in C# (Example using Console app & ASP.NET MVC)?

You can use following extentions

public static class JsonExtensions
{
    public static T ToObject<T>(this string jsonText)
    {
        return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(jsonText);
    }

    public static string ToJson<T>(this T obj)
    {
        return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj);
    } 
}

I ended up with a simple class that creates types on the fly, instantiate them and hydrate them, mirroring the structure of the input JSON.

You can find it here:

https://github.com/starnutoditopo/JsonToObject

         string json = @"{
            'Name': 'Wide Web',
            'Url': 'www.wideweb.com.br'}";

        JavaScriptSerializer jsonSerializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
        dynamic j = jsonSerializer.Deserialize<dynamic>(json);
        string name = j["Name"].ToString();
        string url = j["Url"].ToString();

 using (var ms = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(user)))
 {
    // Deserialization from JSON  
    DataContractJsonSerializer deserializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(UserListing))
    DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(UserListing));
    UserListing response = (UserListing)deserializer.ReadObject(ms);

 }

 public class UserListing
 {
    public List<UserList> users { get; set; }      
 }

 public class UserList
 {
    public string FirstName { get; set; }       
    public string LastName { get; set; } 
 }