c# - Deserialize Dynamic Json string using Newtonsoft JSON.NET

Question

I have a JSON string that I'm getting from Facebook API, in which I have a node whose name changes according to its content, for example some time it is 45, or 58 etc. It could be any number. I want its value. How to get it? Example:

{
"data": [
{
  "id": "1492292372_10201810786059989", 
  "created_time": "2014-04-05T09:00:54+0000"
}, 
{
  "id": "1492292372_10201804679827337", 
  "created_time": "2014-04-04T07:29:07+0000"
}, 
{
  "id": "1492292372_10201804649306574", 
  "created_time": "2014-04-04T07:10:33+0000"
}, 
{
  "id": "1492292372_10201801316823264", 
  "created_time": "2014-04-03T18:31:50+0000"
}, 
{
  "id": "1492292372_10201798962284402", 
  "created_time": "2014-04-03T06:24:47+0000"
}, 
{
  "message_tags": {
    "0": [
      {
        "id": "1492292372", 
        "name": "Yawar Sohail", 
        "type": "user", 
        "offset": 0, 
        "length": 12
      }
    ], 
    "15": [
      {
        "id": "1489845168", 
        "name": "Zeeshan Anjum", 
        "type": "user", 
        "offset": 15, 
        "length": 13
      }
    ]
  }, 
  "id": "1492292372_10201796274777216", 
  "created_time": "2014-04-02T17:57:05+0000"
}, 
{
  "id": "1492292372_10201794080482360", 
  "created_time": "2014-04-02T07:26:23+0000"
}, 

Inside message_tags there are two nodes [0 and 15] they dynamically changes according to their offset values. I want names, type and ids inside these nodes.

Answer 1

You can deserialize your JSON into an ExpandoObject:

var converter = new ExpandoObjectConverter();
dynamic obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ExpandoObject>(json, converter);

Which dynamically adds members to your object at runtime, and allows you to iterate over them as described in this answer:

foreach (var prop in obj.GetType().GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public))
{
   Console.WriteLine("Name: {0}, Value: {1}",prop.Name, prop.GetValue(obj,null));
}

That way you can iterate over obj.message_tags to get the individual messages, and obtain all their details respectively.