How can I deserialize JSON to a simple Dictionary in ASP.NET?

Question

I have a simple key/value list in JSON being sent back to ASP.NET via POST. Example:

{ \"key1\": \"value1\", \"key2\": \"value2\"}

Answer 1

I had the same problem, so I wrote this my self. This solution is differentiated from other answers because it can deserialize in to multiple levels.

Just send JSON string in to deserializeToDictionary function it will return non strongly-typed Dictionary object.

Old code

private Dictionary deserializeToDictionary(string jo)
{
    var values = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject>(jo);
    var values2 = new Dictionary();
    foreach (KeyValuePair d in values)
    {
        // if (d.Value.GetType().FullName.Contains("Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JObject"))
        if (d.Value is JObject)
        {
            values2.Add(d.Key, deserializeToDictionary(d.Value.ToString()));
        }
        else
        {
            values2.Add(d.Key, d.Value);
        }
    }
    return values2;
}

Ex: This will return Dictionary object of a Facebook JSON response.

Test

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    string responsestring = "{\"id\":\"721055828\",\"name\":\"Dasun Sameera Weerasinghe\",\"first_name\":\"Dasun\",\"middle_name\":\"Sameera\",\"last_name\":\"Weerasinghe\",\"username\":\"dasun\",\"gender\":\"male\",\"locale\":\"en_US\",  hometown: {id: \"108388329191258\", name: \"Moratuwa, Sri Lanka\",}}";
    Dictionary values = deserializeToDictionary(responsestring);
}

Note: hometown further deserilize into a Dictionary object.

Update

My old answer works great if there is no array on JSON string. This one further deserialize in to a List