Parsing JSON using Json.net

(This question came up high on a search engine result, but I ended up using a different approach. Adding an answer to this old question in case other people with similar questions read this)

You can solve this with Json.Net and make an extension method to handle the items you want to loop:

public static Tuple<string, int, int> ToTuple(this JToken token)
{
    var type = token["attributes"]["OBJECT_TYPE"].ToString();
    var x = token["position"]["x"].Value<int>();
    var y = token["position"]["y"].Value<int>();
    return new Tuple<string, int, int>(type, x, y);
}

And then access the data like this: (scenario: writing to console):

var tuples = JObject.Parse(myJsonString)["objects"].Select(item => item.ToTuple()).ToList();
tuples.ForEach(t => Console.WriteLine("{0}: ({1},{2})", t.Item1, t.Item2, t.Item3));

I don't know about JSON.NET, but it works fine with JavaScriptSerializer from System.Web.Extensions.dll (.NET 3.5 SP1):

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Web.Script.Serialization;
public class NameTypePair
{
    public string OBJECT_NAME { get; set; }
    public string OBJECT_TYPE { get; set; }
}
public enum PositionType { none, point }
public class Ref
{
    public int id { get; set; }
}
public class SubObject
{
    public NameTypePair attributes { get; set; }
    public Position position { get; set; }
}
public class Position
{
    public int x { get; set; }
    public int y { get; set; }
}
public class Foo
{
    public Foo() { objects = new List<SubObject>(); }
    public string displayFieldName { get; set; }
    public NameTypePair fieldAliases { get; set; }
    public PositionType positionType { get; set; }
    public Ref reference { get; set; }
    public List<SubObject> objects { get; set; }
}
static class Program
{

    const string json = @"{
  ""displayFieldName"" : ""OBJECT_NAME"", 
  ""fieldAliases"" : {
    ""OBJECT_NAME"" : ""OBJECT_NAME"", 
    ""OBJECT_TYPE"" : ""OBJECT_TYPE""
  }, 
  ""positionType"" : ""point"", 
  ""reference"" : {
    ""id"" : 1111
  }, 
  ""objects"" : [
    {
      ""attributes"" : {
        ""OBJECT_NAME"" : ""test name"", 
        ""OBJECT_TYPE"" : ""test type""
      }, 
      ""position"" : 
      {
        ""x"" : 5, 
        ""y"" : 7
      }
    }
  ]
}";


    static void Main()
    {
        JavaScriptSerializer ser = new JavaScriptSerializer();
        Foo foo = ser.Deserialize<Foo>(json);
    }


}

Edit:

Json.NET works using the same JSON and classes.

Foo foo = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Foo>(json);

Link: Serializing and Deserializing JSON with Json.NET

Edit: Thanks Marc, read up on the struct vs class issue and you're right, thank you!

I tend to use the following method for doing what you describe, using a static method of JSon.Net:

MyObject deserializedObject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MyObject>(json);

Link: Serializing and Deserializing JSON with Json.NET

For the Objects list, may I suggest using generic lists out made out of your own small class containing attributes and position class. You can use the Point struct in System.Drawing (System.Drawing.Point or System.Drawing.PointF for floating point numbers) for you X and Y.

After object creation it's much easier to get the data you're after vs. the text parsing you're otherwise looking at.