Dynamic JSON

This is a .NET Standard 2.0 library providing a lightweight dynamic wrapper for super-neat, fast and low-allocating working with JSON, based on the new System.Text.Json.

This library is especially useful for prototyping and scripting when you have to keep the code as clean and easy-to-read as possible.

Install

PM> Install-Package Dynamic.Json

How to use

Instantiate dynamic json:

// parse json from string/stream/etc, for example
var json = DJson.Parse(@"
{
    ""versionNumber"": 1,
    ""product_name"": ""qwerty"",
    ""items"": [ 1, 2, 3 ],
    ""settings"": {
        ""enabled"": false
    }
}");

// or read json from file
var json = DJson.Read("file.json");

// or get json from HTTP
var json = await DJson.GetAsync("https://api.com/endpoint");

// or use HttpClient extension
var json = await httpClient.GetJsonAsync("https://api.com/endpoint");

Use dynamic json as a normal class

You can access json props either like class properties (json.someProperty) or like dictionary elements (json["someProperty"]). Both methods are identical, however, the first one looks better :)

int version = json.versionNumber;
string name = json.product_name;
int item = json.items[1];
int length = json.items.length; //or json.items.count, as you prefer
bool enabled = json.settings.enabled;

Flexible naming convention

camelCase and snake_case are common naming styles in JSON, but uncommon in C# where we use PascalCase for public properties. Therefore, for perfectionists like me DJson allows to access json props not only by their original names (e.g. json.ip_endpoint), but also by its PascalCase version (e.g. json.IPEndpoint). DJson will try to resolve names automatically.

var val = json.VersionNumber;
var str = json.ProductName;
var arr = json.Items[1];
var len = json.Items.Length; //or .Count
var obj = json.Settings.Enabled;

Enumerate arrays

You can enumerate json arrays in foreach or by implicit conversion to IEnumerable<dynamic>.

foreach (var item in json.Items)
    Console.WriteLine($"{item}");

var items = (IEnumerable<dynamic>)json.Items;
var sum = items.Where(x => x > 1).Sum(x => x);

Enumerate objects

You can enumerate json object props (string Name, dynamic Value) in foreach or by implicit conversion to IEnumerable<dynamic>.

foreach (var prop in json.Settings)
    Console.WriteLine($"{prop.Name}: {prop.Value}");

var props = (IEnumerable<dynamic>)json.Settings;
var names = props.Where(x => !x.Value).Select(x => x.Name);

Convert dynamic json to any valid type

While conversion to all built-in C# types is pretty transparent, you can also serialize json to any other type using implicit conversion.

var list = (List<int>)json.Items; // dynamic array -> List<int>
var settings = (MyClass)json.Settings; // dynamic object -> MyClass
var obj = (AnotherType)json;

Extract DateTime like a boss

People often use Unix time format in JSON and that's quite annoying to convert it to DateTime, so DJson does this for you automatically.

var json = DJson.Parse(@"
{
    ""time"": ""2020-09-23T21:12:16Z"",
    ""unix_time"": 1600895536,
    ""unix_time_ms"": 1600895536123
}");

DateTime time = json.Time;
DateTime unixTime = json.UnixTime; // DJson automatically detects if it's Unix time in seconds
DateTime unixTimeMs = json.UnixTimeMs; // or if it's Unix time in milliseconds

What about performance?

One can think that using dynamic wrapper brings a huge overhead, but it's actually not. Here is a simple benchmark, comparing DJson with JsonDocument from System.Text.Json and JToken from Newtonsoft.Json:

|         Method |     Mean |     Error |    StdDev | Ratio | RatioSD |   Gen0 | Allocated |
|--------------- |---------:|----------:|----------:|------:|--------:|-------:|----------:|
| SystemTextJson | 3.046 us | 0.0590 us | 0.0655 us |  1.00 |    0.00 | 0.1945 |   1.21 KB |
|          DJson | 4.111 us | 0.0308 us | 0.0257 us |  1.35 |    0.03 | 0.5722 |   3.53 KB |
|     Newtonsoft | 7.003 us | 0.1357 us | 0.1946 us |  2.29 |    0.09 | 1.4496 |   8.91 KB |

Of course, using .Deserialize<T>() would be even faster, but we're only talking about dynamic-like access, when you will likely spend a lot more time describing the types do deserialize your JSON to.

Contributing

Feel free to create issues, feature requests and pull requests.

Cheers 🍻