{"id":69479,"date":"2022-04-20T08:34:23","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T06:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drafts.code-maze.com\/?p=69467"},"modified":"2022-04-20T08:34:23","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T06:34:23","slug":"csharp-json-deserialization-poco-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/code-maze.com\/csharp-json-deserialization-poco-class\/","title":{"rendered":"JSON Deserialization to a POCO Class in C#"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deserialization is the process of taking a string representation of an object and creating that object in memory. JSON is an ever-increasingly popular format to serialize objects into. It has become nearly ubiquitous in API communication. In this article, we will take a look at two ways to execute the JSON deserialization to a POCO class in C# using System.Text.Json<\/code> and Newtonsoft.Json<\/code> libraries.<\/p>\n

To download the source code for this article, you can visit our GitHub repository<\/a>.<\/div>\n

Let’s start.<\/p>\n

Deserialize JSON to a POCO Class<\/h2>\n

In the next sections, we will take a look at how we can deserialize a JSON string into an instance of a POCO class object.\u00a0<\/p>\n

JSON Deserialization to a POCO Class With System.Text.Json<\/h3>\n

First, let’s take a look at deserializing with the .NET System.Text.Json<\/code> library. This library is standard with .NET and all we need to do to be able to use it is to add using System.Text.Json;<\/code> to the file we are working with.<\/p>\n

Let’s start by defining a JSON object in a file:<\/p>\n

\/\/ JSON\/HondaCivic.json\r\n{\r\n  \"make\": \"Honda\",\r\n  \"model\": \"Civic\",\r\n  \"year\": 2015,\r\n  \"features\": [\r\n    \"ABS\",\r\n    \"Automatic locks\",\r\n    \"Power windows\"\r\n  ]\r\n}<\/pre>\n
Now that we have a serialized object in JSON, we can deserialize it into our POCO Car<\/code> class:<\/p>\n
using System.Text.Json.Serialization;\r\n\r\npublic class Car\r\n{\r\n   [JsonPropertyName(\"make\")]\r\n   public string Make { get; set; } = default!;\r\n   [JsonPropertyName(\"model\")]\r\n   public string Model { get; set; } = default!;\r\n   [JsonPropertyName(\"year\")]\r\n   public int Year { get; set; } = default!;\r\n   [JsonPropertyName(\"features\")]\r\n   public IEnumerable<string> Features { get; set; } = default!;\r\n}<\/pre>\n
In this class, we create class members to match the fields in the expected JSON object we are trying to deserialize. Additionally, we decorate the properties with the JsonPropertyName()<\/code> attribute. This attribute is only required for System.Text.Json<\/code>, we don\u2019t have to use it with Newtonsoft.Json<\/code>.<\/p>\n
Next, let’s modify the Program<\/code> class:<\/p>\n
public static void Main()\r\n{\r\n   \/\/ Read JSON file. This could also be a DB or API response.\r\n   var jsonStr = File.ReadAllText(\"JSON\/HondaCivic.json\");\r\n\r\n   \/\/ Deserialize to get an object of type Car\r\n   DeserializedJsonCar = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Car>(jsonStr)!;\r\n}<\/pre>\n
We read JSON from a file using the ReadAllText<\/code> method, and deserialize it to the DeserializeJsonCar<\/code> property using the JsonSerializer.Deserialize<\/code> method. Note that the source of the JSON can be more than a text file. JSON can come from a database or an API response.<\/p>\n
That’s it, we are done! We have recovered the state of the Car<\/code> in the JSON file by deserializing the JSON into an object in memory.<\/p>\n
In this article, we deserialize a simple JSON object. But if you want to learn more about the complex deserialization, you can read this article<\/a><\/div>\n
JSON Deserialization to a POCO Class With Newtonsoft.Json<\/h3>\n
Next, we are going to take a look at the same example but this time we will use Newtonsoft.Json<\/code>. This article<\/a> explains the difference between these two libraries in greater detail.<\/p>\n
First, let’s bring in Newtonsoft.Json<\/code> as a dependency. We can do this by installing the Newtonsoft.Json<\/code> NuGet package via the Visual Studio NuGet Package Manager Console:<\/p>\n
Install-Package Newtonsoft.Json<\/code><\/p>\n
Once this dependency is installed we can import Newtonsoft.Json<\/code> into our code.<\/p>\n
Now, we are ready to deserialize our JSON object into a Car<\/code> object:<\/p>\n
public static void Main()\r\n{\r\n    var jsonStr = File.ReadAllText(\"JSON\/HondaCivic.json\");\r\n\r\n    NewtonsoftDeserializedJsonCar = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Car>(jsonStr)!;\r\n}<\/pre>\n
We can see that the process with Newtonsoft.Json<\/code> is quite similar to the one with System.Text.Json<\/code>. Just, in this case, we are using the JsonConvert<\/code> class to call the Deserialize<\/code> method.<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
In summary, we have covered two options to deserialize JSON into a POCO class in C#. Even though we’ve deserialized JSON from a file, the source of the JSON can also be a database or API. Using JSON is a great way to transfer data from the backend to a web app or desktop application. Moreover, we can keep the state of the object intact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deserialization is the process of taking a string representation of an object and creating that object in memory. JSON is an ever-increasingly popular format to serialize objects into. It has become nearly ubiquitous in API communication. In this article, we will take a look at two ways to execute the JSON deserialization to a POCO […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":62189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[929,1217,927,1157,1158],"class_list":["post-69479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-csharp","tag-deserialization","tag-deserialize-json-to-a-poco","tag-json","tag-newtonsoft-json","tag-system-text-json","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nJSON Deserialization to a POCO Class in C# - Code Maze<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this article, we will learn how to execute JSON deserialization to a POCO class in C# with two different libraries.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/code-maze.com\/csharp-json-deserialization-poco-class\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"JSON Deserialization to a POCO Class in C# - 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