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How to split a string into substrings and store into a List - c#

I need to split a string into multiple substrings and store those substrings into a list.
Here is an example of the possible contents stored in my initial string:
"{"Stocks": [{"APPLE-775121": false, "AMZN-007612": true, "GOLD-847571": true}]}"
The initial string is ever changing, their could be multiple stocks names in there. I need to extract these items only and store into a list of strings:
APPLE-775121
AMZN-007612
GOLD-847571
Having a little trouble parsing the string, I'm new to C# and don't know about all the useful string functions that exist.
So far what I have done is parsed the InitialString to a new string (named ParsedString) which contains:
"APPLE-775121": false, "AMZN-007612": true, "GOLD-847571": true
Can I get some help parsing the rest of this string and storing the substrings into a list?
Thanks in advance!

You will first want to create a class to house that Stock data. From there, you can use Newtonsoft's Json conversion utilities and LINQ to extract your list. I forget which, but some project templates actually come with the Newtonsoft package already installed, but if it's not there by default, you can get it here.
void Main()
{
var str = "{\"Stocks\": [{\"APPLE-775121\": false, \"AMZN-007612\": true, \"GOLD-847571\": true}]}";
var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<StockContainer>(str);
var stockList = obj.Stocks.SelectMany(dictEntry => dictEntry.Keys).ToList();
Console.Write(stockList); //this is what you want
}
public class StockContainer
{
public List<Dictionary<string, bool>> Stocks {get;set;}
}

If you are sure, that list always be wrapped in [ and ], and items' names won't contain any [, ], {, } and , you can use simple string.Split:
var str = "{\"Stocks\": [{\"APPLE-775121\": false, \"AMZN-007612\": true, \"GOLD-847571\": true}]}";
var listOfItems = str.Split(new char[] { '[', ']', '}', '{' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)[1];
var extractedItems = listOfItems.Split(',').Select(item => item.Split(':')[0]).ToArray();

Enumerate a JSON Object and search for and replace data while accompanying EOF

I need to be able to enumerate through ANY kind of JSON, multi-dimensional, one-dimensional, nested, e.t.c and be able to search through BOTH Key, Values e.t.c for <TECH> (.Contains not ==) and replace it with I'm Now Here! "\(^.^)/"
Example:
{"hi":"hello","hi<TECH>":'Lol<TECH>,,,'}
Result should be:
{"hi":"hello","hiI'm Now Here! \"\\(^.^)\/\"":'LolI\'m Now Here! "\\(^.^)\/",,,'}
Im essentially trying to be able to insert data where <TECH> is while properly taking care of \" \ and \' (and others like this).
Again it may not be a single dimensional line it could be nested.
Im trying to JObject.Parse() which allows me to Enumerate through KeyValuePairs but how im meant to send back an edit to the Key/Value im unsure of.
(Also ordering and such is important, I need it to end up being completely the same as the original JSON, formatting and even how its formatted as in one-lined or not has to stay the same)
What I have at the moment
JObject j = JObject.Parse(postData);
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, JToken> item in new JObject(j)) {
string OriginalKey = item.Key.ToString();
string OriginalValue = item.Value.ToString();
string techWord1 = "Other Word's Stuff \":P";
string techWord2 = "I'm Now Here! \"\\(^.^)/\"";
foreach (string techWord in new string[] { "TECH1", "TECH2" }) {
if (OriginalKey.Contains("<" + techWord + ">")) {
j[OriginalKey.Replace("<" + techWord + ">", techWord == "TECH1" ? techWord1 : techWord2)] = j[item.Key];
j.Remove(item.Key);
}
if(OriginalValue.Contains("<" + techWord + ">")) {
j[item.Key] = OriginalValue.Replace("<" + techWord + ">", techWord == "TECH1" ? techWord1 : techWord2);
}
}
}
return j.ToString(Formatting.None);
Issues:
Does not follow the same exact spacing, indenting e.t.c as the original
Don't think it works on nested/multi-dimensional JSON
Don't think every kind of JObject is a KeyValuePair Format? For example how is it going to handle: [{"hi":"value"}, {"hi2":"value2"}]
Other than those, this seems like a good option. It properly parses all kinds of EOF errors that could occur in both Key:Value scenarios. Just need some way to make its .ToString format EXACTLY like the input JSON, for example lets say there were 2 spaces between { and "hi" in the input JSON, the .ToString() would remove that but I need it to KEEP those.

Find string between brackets

I'm having a string that could look like this:
{
"acl_gent": {
"cluster": [],
"indices": [{
"names": ["am*"],
"privileges": ["read", "view_index_metadata"],
"query": "{\"match\": {\"ACL\": \"acl_gent\"}}"
}],
"run_as": []
},
"acl_luik": {
"cluster": [],
"indices": [{
"names": ["am*"],
"privileges": ["read", "view_index_metadata"],
"query": "{\"match\": {\"ACL\": \"acl_luik\"}}"
}],
"run_as": []
}
}
and I would like to split it up in to 2 strings, 1 containing the acl_gent and one conaining acl_luik
the string above can contain more then 2 acl's (and I DON'T know what the name will be)
so I started removing the first and last bracketes :
input = input.Substring(1, input.Length - 2);
but then I can't figure out on how to find the right closing bracket to extract the data.
this was the closest I got
private int closer(string input) {
var i = input.IndexOf('}');
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("[DEBUG] Checking: {0}", input.Substring(0, i).Contains('{')));
if (input.Substring(0, i).Contains('{')) {
return i + closer(input.Substring(i)) + 2;
}
return i;
}

What you have there is a JSON string, a common response from a web service, and there are plenty of libraries to parse JSON, the most common one being JSON.NET. With this you could do something like
JObject myJsonObject = JObject.Parse(myResponse)
and retrieve your strings by their key names, such as
JObject aclString = myJsonObject["acl_luik"];
There are plenty of resources online for parsing JSON strings if you wish to go into more detail.

You have 2 options here:
1) Parse as JSON and get the first 2 objects, this is the better one.
2) Parse using Stack as string of tokens to get what you want, like this:
- Remove the first and last { }
- Using stack, add all { you find, and once you find } remove the first { in the stack.
- Once the stack is empty then you get 1 complete object there, save the indeces while you work and it should be easy to substring with start and end.

I ran into the same problem recently. My solution was to deserialize the string to a json object (in my case a JObject using Json.net) and then accessing the individual members and serializing them to separate strings.
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;
public void MakeStrings(string json)
{
var jobject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<JObject>(json);
string acl_gent = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(jobject["acl_gent"]);
string acl_luik = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(jobject["acl_luik"]);
}

How do i build a string array out of a list

i have a function that returns a List of strings
static List<string> getPushIDsForCategory(string user, string project)
{
....
}
and im then using that function to build a json string on the fly
var JSON = "{\"app_id\": \"MY_ID_KEY\"," +
"\"contents\": {\"en\": \"My Message\"}," +
"\"ios_badgeType\": \"Increase\"," +
"\"ios_badgeCount\": \"1\"," +
"\"include_player_ids\": [\"" + getPushIDsForCategory(user, project) + "\"]" + //<-- that string array goes here (item 1, item 2, item 3, etc...)
"}";
when i run this code i get
{
...
"include_player_ids": ["System.Collections.Generic.List 1[System.String]"]
...
}
if I replace it with getPushIDsForCategory(user, project)).ToArray
i get
{
...
"include_player_ids": ["System.String[]"]
...
}
how can i get acutal strings and not object types?

I believe what you are looking for is string.Join(", ", getPushIDsForCategory(user, project));
This will take each object in your array and join them together with the delimiter of ", " (comma space)
as others of mentioned, this WILL cause headache later down the line.
take a look at http://www.newtonsoft.com/json

Changes:
static string[] getPushIDsForCategory(string user, string project)
var idsArray = String.Join(", ", getPushIDsForCategory(user, project));
"\"include_player_ids\": [\"" + idsArray + "\"]"
That said, you might not want to create the Json like that. What you are building there is called "a magic string". This means that if there is a problem with yout Json, you will find out at runtime rather than compile time. Rather, have a class to which you map all the data and use that to create the Json.

how to normalise json from javascript in c#

hello there i have this following j.s .. i am sending an array to my C# file in r in json format
var r=['maths','computer','physics']
$.post("Global.aspx", { opt: "postpost", post: w.val(),tags:JSON.stringify(r)
}, function (d) {
});
but in c# i am getting this type of string:
["Maths""Computer""Physics"]
.
i want only the words maths,computer,physics not the [ sign and " sign .. please help me out
i have following c# code :
string[] _tags = Request.Form["tags"].ToString().Split(',');
string asd="";
foreach (string ad in _tags) {
asd += ad;
}

You're looking for JSON deserialization:
List<string> list = new JavaScriptSerializer().Deserialize<List<string>>(Request.Form["tags"]);
As pointed out, you've split your string on the , character leaving you with an array of:
[0] = "[\"Maths\""
[1] = "\"Computer\""
[2] = "\"Physics\"]"
Because JSON is a data type, those square brackets actually have functional meaning. They're not just useless extra characters. As such, you need to parse the data into a format you can actually work that.