Convert JSON string to .net object

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In this video we will discuss
1. How to convert .NET object to JSON string
2. How to convert a JSON string to .NET object



We will be using the following Employee class

public class Employee

{

    public string firstName { get; set; }

    public string lastName { get; set; }

    public string gender { get; set; }

    public int salary { get; set; }

}

The following example converts List<Employee> objects to a JSON string. Serialize() method of JavaScriptSerializer class converts a .NET object to a JSON string. JavaScriptSerializer class is present in System.Web.Script.Serialization namespace.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Web.Script.Serialization;

namespace Demo

{

    public partial class WebForm1 : System.Web.UI.Page

    {

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            Employee employee1 = new Employee

            {

                firstName = "Todd",

                lastName = "Grover",

                gender = "Male",

                salary = 50000

            };

            Employee employee2 = new Employee

            {

                firstName = "Sara",

                lastName = "Baker",

                gender = "Female",

                salary = 40000

            };

            List<Employee> listEmployee = new List<Employee>();

            listEmployee.Add(employee1);

            listEmployee.Add(employee2);

            JavaScriptSerializer javaScriptSerializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();

            string JSONString = javaScriptSerializer.Serialize(listEmployee);

            Response.Write(JSONString);

        }

    }

}

Output : 
[{"firstName":"Todd","lastName":"Grover","gender":"Male","salary":50000},{"firstName":"Sara","lastName":"Baker","gender":"Female","salary":40000}] 

The following example converts a JSON string to List<Employee> objects. Deserialize() method of JavaScriptSerializer class converts a JSON string to a .NET object. 

string jsonString = "[{\"firstName\":\"Todd\",\"lastName\":\"Grover\",\"gender\":\"Male\",\"salary\":50000},{\"firstName\":\"Sara\",\"lastName\":\"Baker\",\"gender\":\"Female\",\"salary\":40000}]";

JavaScriptSerializer javaScriptSerializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();

List<Employee> employees = (List<Employee>)javaScriptSerializer.Deserialize(jsonString, typeof(List<Employee>));

foreach (Employee employee in employees)

{

    Response.Write("First Name = " + employee.firstName + "<br/>");

    Response.Write("Last Name = " + employee.lastName + "<br/>");

    Response.Write("Gender = " + employee.gender + "<br/>");

    Response.Write("Salary = " + employee.salary + "<br/><br/>");

}

Output :