How to do recursive descent of json using json.net?
Also needed to do something of the sorts. Would like to propose my solution. It has the advantage of:
- not being recursive
- no callbacks
- not assuming any internal structure (arrays)
decouples tree traversal from the action needed to be executed
IEnumerable<JToken> AllTokens(JObject obj) { var toSearch = new Stack<JToken>(obj.Children()); while (toSearch.Count > 0) { var inspected = toSearch.Pop(); yield return inspected; foreach (var child in inspected) { toSearch.Push(child); } } }
Then you can use linq to filter and perform action:
var tokens = AllTokens(jsonObj); var titles = tokens.Where(t => t.Type == JTokenType.Property && ((JProperty)t).Name == "Title");
You could also do it with JSONPath: node.SelectTokens("$..*");
Used like this:
var jObjectsWithTitle = node
.SelectTokens("$..*")
.OfType<JObject>()
.Where(x => x.Property("Title") != null);
Or just:
var jObjectsWithTitle = node.SelectTokens("$..[?(@.Title)]");
I thought I'd include my minor tweaks to @BrianRogers WalkNode method, made it slightly more versatile:
private static void WalkNode(JToken node,
Action<JObject> objectAction = null,
Action<JProperty> propertyAction = null)
{
if (node.Type == JTokenType.Object)
{
if (objectAction != null) objectAction((JObject) node);
foreach (JProperty child in node.Children<JProperty>())
{
if (propertyAction != null) propertyAction(child);
WalkNode(child.Value, objectAction, propertyAction);
}
}
else if (node.Type == JTokenType.Array)
{
foreach (JToken child in node.Children())
{
WalkNode(child, objectAction, propertyAction);
}
}
}
Then OP could do something like:
WalkNode(json, null, prop =>
{
if (prop.Name == "Title" && prop.Value.Type == JTokenType.String)
{
string title = prop.Value<string>();
Console.WriteLine(title);
}
});
The code below should be pretty close to what you are looking for. I made the assumption that there is an outer array, and that arrays can appear anywhere in the hierarchy. (If this is not true, you can simplify the WalkNode method code a bit, but it should work either way.)
using System;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;
namespace JsonRecursiveDescent
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string json =
@"[
{
""X"":
{
""Title"":""foo"",
""xxxx"":""xxxx""
}
},
{
""Y"":
{
""ZZ"":
{
""Title"":""bar"",
""xxxx"":""xxxx""
}
}
}
]";
JToken node = JToken.Parse(json);
WalkNode(node, n =>
{
JToken token = n["Title"];
if (token != null && token.Type == JTokenType.String)
{
string title = token.Value<string>();
Console.WriteLine(title);
}
});
}
static void WalkNode(JToken node, Action<JObject> action)
{
if (node.Type == JTokenType.Object)
{
action((JObject)node);
foreach (JProperty child in node.Children<JProperty>())
{
WalkNode(child.Value, action);
}
}
else if (node.Type == JTokenType.Array)
{
foreach (JToken child in node.Children())
{
WalkNode(child, action);
}
}
}
}
}