Get value from JToken that may not exist (best practices)

Question

What\'s the best practice for retrieving JSON values that may not even exist in C# using Json.NET?

Right now I\'m dealing with a JSON provider that returns JSON that

Answer 1

Here is how you can check if the token exists:

if (jobject["Result"].SelectToken("Items") != null) { ... }

It checks if "Items" exists in "Result".

This is a NOT working example that causes exception:

if (jobject["Result"]["Items"] != null) { ... }

Answer 2

This takes care of nulls

var body = JObject.Parse("anyjsonString");

body?.SelectToken("path-string-prop")?.ToString();

body?.SelectToken("path-double-prop")?.ToObject<double>();

Answer 3

This is pretty much what the generic method Value() is for. You get exactly the behavior you want if you combine it with nullable value types and the ?? operator:

width = jToken.Value<double?>("width") ?? 100;

Answer 4

I would write GetValue as below

public static T GetValue<T>(this JToken jToken, string key, T defaultValue = default(T))
{
    dynamic ret = jToken[key];
    if (ret == null) return defaultValue;
    if (ret is JObject) return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(ret.ToString());
    return (T)ret;
}

This way you can get the value of not only the basic types but also complex objects. Here is a sample

public class ClassA
{
    public int I;
    public double D;
    public ClassB ClassB;
}
public class ClassB
{
    public int I;
    public string S;
}

var jt = JToken.Parse("{ I:1, D:3.5, ClassB:{I:2, S:'test'} }");

int i1 = jt.GetValue<int>("I");
double d1 = jt.GetValue<double>("D");
ClassB b = jt.GetValue<ClassB>("ClassB");

Answer 5

You can simply typecast, and it will do the conversion for you, e.g.

var with = (double?) jToken[key] ?? 100;

It will automatically return null if said key is not present in the object, so there's no need to test for it.

Answer 6

TYPE variable = jsonbody["key"]?.Value<TYPE>() ?? DEFAULT_VALUE;

e.g.

bool attachMap = jsonbody["map"]?.Value<bool>() ?? false;