A variable of two types

Question

I need to read an JSON object from TypeScript, which has a variable names prop which of two types, either Identifier or Expression to C#.

Answer 1

If the property can have either of these two formats:

{ "prop": "identifier" }
{ "prop": { "complex": "object" } }

ie. either a simple string or a more complex object you can solve this by using dynamic to accept the parsed prop value, and extra properties to return either the identifier or the complex object. Here is a LINQPad program that demonstrates:

void Main()
{
    var jsonStrings = new[]
    {
        "{ \"prop\": \"identifier\" }",
        "{ \"prop\": { \"complex\": \"object\" } }"
    };

    jsonStrings.Select(json => JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Test>(json)).Dump();
}

public class Test
{
    public Test()
    {
        _Complex = new Lazy<Complex>(GetComplex);
    }

    [JsonProperty("prop")]
    public dynamic prop { get; set; }

    [JsonIgnore]
    public string Identifier => prop as string;

    private readonly Lazy<Complex> _Complex;

    [JsonIgnore]
    public Complex Complex => _Complex.Value;

    private Complex GetComplex()
    {
        if (!(prop is JObject))
            return null;

        return ((JObject)prop).ToObject<Complex>();
    }
}

public class Complex
{
    public string complex { get; set; }
}

Output:

A different approach would be to create your own types to handle the multiple outputs and again use a secondary property to evaluate what you actually got from the json:

void Main()
{
    var jsonStrings = new[]
    {
        "{ \"prop\": \"identifier\" }",
        "{ \"prop\": { \"complex\": \"object\" } }"
    };

    jsonStrings.Select(json => JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Test>(json)).Dump();
}

public class Test
{
    [JsonProperty("prop")]
    public dynamic prop { get; set; }

    [JsonIgnore]
    public PropertyValue Property
    {
        get
        {
            if (prop is string)
                return new IdentifierProperty(prop as string);
            return new ExpressionProperty(((JObject)prop).ToObject<Expression>());
        }
    }
}

public abstract class PropertyValue
{
}

public class IdentifierProperty : PropertyValue
{
    public IdentifierProperty(string identifier)
    {
        Identifier = identifier;
    }

    public string Identifier { get; }

    public override string ToString() => Identifier;
}

public class ExpressionProperty : PropertyValue
{
    public ExpressionProperty(Expression expression)
    {
        Expression = expression;
    }

    public Expression Expression { get; }

    public override string ToString() => Expression.ToString();
}

public class Expression
{
    public string complex { get; set; }

    public override string ToString() => $"complex: {complex}";
}

Output: