JSON.NET how to remove nodes
I just ended up deserializing to JObject and recursively looping through that to remove unwanted fields. Here's the function for those interested.
private void removeFields(JToken token, string[] fields)
{
JContainer container = token as JContainer;
if (container == null) return;
List<JToken> removeList = new List<JToken>();
foreach (JToken el in container.Children())
{
JProperty p = el as JProperty;
if (p != null && fields.Contains(p.Name))
{
removeList.Add(el);
}
removeFields(el, fields);
}
foreach (JToken el in removeList)
{
el.Remove();
}
}
I would create a new data structure with only the required information and copy the data from the first one. Often that is the simpliest approach. Just an idea.
Building off of @[Mohamed Nuur]'s answer, I changed it to an extension method which I think works better:
public static JToken RemoveFields(this JToken token, string[] fields)
{
JContainer container = token as JContainer;
if (container == null) return token;
List<JToken> removeList = new List<JToken>();
foreach (JToken el in container.Children())
{
JProperty p = el as JProperty;
if (p != null && fields.Contains(p.Name))
{
removeList.Add(el);
}
el.RemoveFields(fields);
}
foreach (JToken el in removeList)
{
el.Remove();
}
return token;
}
Here is unit test:
[TestMethod]
public void can_remove_json_field_removeFields()
{
string original = "{\"d\":{\"results\":[{\"__metadata\":{},\"remove\":\"done\",\"prop1\":\"value1\",\"prop2\":\"value2\",\"__some\":\"value\"},{\"__metadata\":{},\"prop3\":\"value1\",\"prop4\":\"value2\",\"__some\":\"value\"}],\"__metadata\":{\"prop3\":\"value1\",\"prop4\":\"value2\"}}}";
string expected = "{\"d\":{\"results\":[{\"prop1\":\"value1\",\"prop2\":\"value2\",\"__some\":\"value\"},{\"prop3\":\"value1\",\"prop4\":\"value2\",\"__some\":\"value\"}]}}";
string actual = JToken.Parse(original).RemoveFields(new string[]{"__metadata", "remove"}).ToString(Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.None);
Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual);
}