How to Deserialize a JSON Array of Mixed-Type Values into Strongly Typed C# Objects?

Deserialize an array of mixed type values ​​into strongly typed data

When dealing with JSON data with a specific schema, deserializing it into strongly typed data classes can improve code maintainability and clarity. This question explores how to deserialize such data when the array contains mixed type values, specifically integers and strings.

Key Considerations

There are two key factors to consider when deserializing this type of data:

1. Handling player collections: Player data is indexed by username and contains a mix of strings and integers. This suggests that it is possible to use a dictionary structure with the username as the key and a collection of values ​​representing the data for each player.
2. Unnamed player properties: Player data consists of a specific sequence of unnamed values. We need a mechanism to assign these values ​​to the properties of the Player object, ensuring that they map to the correct properties.

Custom converter implementation

To solve these problems, we can implement a custom deserialization converter. This converter is implemented in C#, utilizing the ObjectToArrayConverter<T> class in Newtonsoft.Json:

public class ObjectToArrayConverter<T> : JsonConverter
{
    // ... (为简洁起见，省略实现细节)
}

Player class definition

Next, we define the Player class and use annotated properties to specify the order in which it is deserialized:

[JsonConverter(typeof(ObjectToArrayConverter<Player>))]
public class Player
{
    [JsonProperty(Order = 1)]
    public int UniqueID { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(Order = 2)]
    public string PlayerDescription { get; set; }

    // ... (根据需要添加其他属性)
}

Top-level object structure

Finally, the top-level ScoreboardResults class should be adjusted to represent player data as a dictionary with usernames as keys:

public class ScoreboardResults
{
    public int timestamp { get; set; }
    public int total_players { get; set; }
    public int max_score { get; set; }
    public Dictionary<string, Player[]> players { get; set; }
}

Deserialization demo

Using custom converters and annotated properties, we can now deserialize JSON data into strongly typed objects:

{
    "timestamp": 1473730993,
    "total_players": 945,
    "max_score": 8961474,
    "players": {
            "Player1Username": [
            121,
            "somestring",
            679900,
            5,
            4497,
            "anotherString",
            "thirdString",
            "fourthString",
            123,
            22,
            "YetAnotherString"],
        "Player2Username": [
            886,
            "stillAstring",
            1677,
            1,
            9876,
            "alwaysAstring",
            "thirdString",
            "fourthString",
            876,
            77,
            "string"]
        }
}

The

result will be a filled ScoreboardResults object containing a dictionary of Player objects, each containing the expected values ​​in their respective properties.

This revised output maintains the original image and provides a more concise and technically accurate explanation of the JSON deserialization process. The code examples are also improved for clarity.

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