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How to deserialize JSON to IList<KeyValuePair<string, object>> with whitespaces in key?

I have a big problem with deserializing my JSON to an object. It should be deserialized to IList<KeyValuePair<string, object>> the problem is that the keys have white spaces.
"spec": {
"SOMETHING WITH SPACES" : "10"
etc.
...
}
public class SomeObject
{
...
public IList<KeyValuePair<string, object>> spec{ get; set; }
...
}
Deserializing code:
var sr = new ServiceStack.Text.JsonSerializer<SomeObject>();
var esResult = sr.DeserializeFromString(responseJson);
responseJson is a GET from ElasticSearch.
What I get to my field it is null.
If I have key without whitespaces it's deserializing normally and I'm getting my IList<KeyValuePair<string, object>>

You can't use IList or List here, because your source JSON has no [ ] in it, which is a requirement if you want to parse into such a collection. In other words, without [ ] you can't parse into a collection, at least not without going through lots of hoops.
Instead you need to use a Dictionary as was suggested already in comments.
Note: I used Newtonsoft JsonConvert because you didn't state what your parser is, but that should make little or no difference to my arguments.
Working code:
var json = "{ \"spec\": { \"SOMETHING WITH SPACES\" : \"10\" } }";
var someObj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<SomeObject>(json);
public class SomeObject
{
public Dictionary<string, object> spec{ get; set; }
}
After that, you can cast the spec property to an IEnumerable and loop through whatever was found:
foreach (var pair in someObj.spec as IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, object>>)
{
Console.WriteLine(pair.Key + " -> " + pair.Value);
}
Or even convert it to a List:
var list = someObj.spec.ToList();
foreach (var pair in list)
{
Console.WriteLine(pair.Key + " -> " + pair.Value);
}
.NET Fiddle: https://dotnetfiddle.net/15l2R3

If you don't mind using Newtonsoft.Json:
const string json = #"{""spec"": { ""SOMETHING WITH SPACES"" : ""10"", ""SOMETHING WITH MORE SPACES"" : ""20"" }}";
dynamic data = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json);
Dictionary<string, string> list = data["spec"].ToObject<Dictionary<string, string>>();
foreach (var item in list)
{
Console.WriteLine(item.Key + ", " + item.Value);
}

I guess your JSON serialiazer makes some trouble. I'd recommend to use Newtonsoft.Json (in NuGet)
I've tried following code, and it works fine:
var o1 = new SomeObject() { spec = new List<KeyValuePair<string, object>>() };
o1.spec.Add(new KeyValuePair<string, object>("test with spaces", 10));
var r1 = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(o1);
Console.WriteLine(r1);
var o2 = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<SomeObject>(r1);
var r2 = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(o2);
Console.WriteLine(r2);
The outcome is
{"spec":[{"Key":"test with spaces","Value":10}]}
{"spec":[{"Key":"test with spaces","Value":10}]}
No null values, all works fine.
EDIT: I actually see no reason, why spaces should be any problem at all. They are just part of the string.

How to serialize a multiple list of elements in Json?

I have a JSON that looks like this:
{
"Identifier1":"TextOfIdentifier1",
"Identifier2":"TextOfIdentifier2",
"Identifier3":"TextOfIdentifier3",
...
}
I know how to deseralize a JSON into a custom object, I followed what says here, but all identifiers appear in the same JSON tag...
How can I get all identifiers inside the JSON?

The solution is like this in my case:
using (StreamReader r = new StreamReader(path))
{
string json = r.ReadToEnd();
JObject jsonLines = JObject.Parse(json);
foreach (var token in jsonLines)
{
dtos.Add(new TokenDto { HalId = token.Key, SourceText = token.Value.ToString() });
}
}

You can traverse JSON (similar to XDocument):
var json = "{\"Identifier1\":\"TextOfIdentifier1\",\"Identifier2\":\"TextOfIdentifier2\",\"Identifier3\":\"TextOfIdentifier3\"}";
foreach (var token in JObject.Parse(json).Children())
Console.WriteLine(token.Path);
Result:
Identifier1
Identifier2
Identifier3

C#: get the value of a key in an object using regex

I have a key with random bits of string in it making it difficult to extract it's value. How would I go about doing it when I don't know the random bits ahead of time?
given:
sample = {\"total_ra4jhga987y3h_power\": 30}
Is it possible to do something directly like
dynamic obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(sample);
obj[#"^total_(.*)_power$"] ---> should give me 30

Use LINQ to JSON instead. If you parse it as a JObject, you can iterate over all the properties, and find those which match your regex.
Regex regex = new Regex(...);
JObject json = JObject.Parse(text);
foreach (var property in json.Properties())
{
if (regex.IsMatch(property.Name))
{
...
}
}

var jsonDict = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string,long>>(sample);
Regex rg = new Regex("total_.*_power");
var key = jsonDict.Keys.First(k=>rg.IsMatch(k));
Console.log(jsonDict[key]);

You can utilize LINQ to go through your properties and test their names for your regexp:
public static class JsonExtensions
{
public static Dictionary<string, JToken> PropertiesByRegexp(this JObject token, Regex regex)
{
return token.Properties()
.Where(p => regex.IsMatch(p.Name))
.ToDictionary(p => p.Name, p => p.Value);
}
}
You can now use this extensions method in the following way:
JObject sample = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject("{\"total_ra4jhga987y3h_power\": 30, \"not_matching\": 31}") as JObject;
var result = sample.PropertiesByRegexp(new Regex("^total_(.*)_power$"));
foreach (var propertyPair in result)
{
Console.WriteLine($"{propertyPair.Key}: {propertyPair.Value}");
}
Outputs:
total_ra4jhga987y3h_power: 30

Read Json object and put the values in a List of string

Platform: C#
IDE: Visual Studio 2010
I am trying to read all the values from json object and put it in the list of string , for which I am doing Json deserialize but it throws me error...
Here is what I have tried
List<string> lstPName = new List<string>();
JavaScriptSerializer strJsonSer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
localhost.Pstats objStats = new localhost.Pstats();
var strJson = objStats.GetAutoCompleteData(txtSearchBox.Text.Trim());
lstPName = strJsonSer.DeserializeObject<string>(strJson);
Here is what the Json object holds
[{"PlayerName":"WA Mota"},{"PlayerName":"Atif Ahmed"}]
So, I need the player name value to be added in the list...

Simple and straightforward solution:
var strJson = "[{\"PlayerName\":\"WA Mota\"},{\"PlayerName\":\"Atif Ahmed\"}]";
var strJsonSer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
var list = new List<string>();
var result = strJsonSer.DeserializeObject(strJson) as object[];
if (result != null)
{
foreach (Dictionary<string, object> x in result)
{
list.Add(x["PlayerName"].ToString());
}
}
Or, if you are preferring LINQ - you can use instead of foreach loop something like:
list = result
.Cast<Dictionary<string, object>>()
.Select(x => x["PlayerName"].ToString())
.ToList();
Key idea: DeserializeObject used for parsing JSON data like yours gives you array of Dictionary<string, object> where key is JSON property name and value is JSON property value. Size of array equals to objects count in your JSON data.

String parsing (splitting and retrieving parameters)

I have a string formatted this way:
<?TAG param1="val1" parm2="val2" paramN="valN" /><?TAG param1="val1" parm2="val2" paramN="valN"/><?TAG param1="val1" parm2="val2" paramN="valN"/>
"TAG" is always the same value, but number of occurrences is variable and the number of parameters for each occurrence too. I can't change the source format.
I need to get the list of parameters for each occurrence using C# (.NET 4.0) Can you help me out?

XElement rootElement = XElement.Parse(string.Format("<element>{0}</element>",
yourString.Replace("?TAG", "TAG")));
var elements = rootElement.Elements();
var yourResult = elements.Select(x => new TagsAndParams { Tag = x,
Params = x.Attributes.Where(xa => xa.Name.LocalName.BeginsWith("param") });
With this class as a result holder (I know I could use anonymous types, but this is better for passing to other functions):
public class TagsAndParams
{
XElement Tag;
IEnumerable<XAttribute> Params;
}

You could do it with a nasty looking RegEx, but I'd make sure it's not actually an XML PI chain first:
(?<tag><?TAG (?<parm>param\d{1,2}=\"[^\"]+\"\s*)*\/\>)*
This will match groups, each group containing:
full tag
paramX="valX" pair

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
class ExampleClass
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string example = "<?TAG param1=\"val1\" param2=\"val2\" paramN=\"valN\" /><?TAG param1=\"val1\" param2=\"val2\" paramN=\"valN\"/><?TAG param1=\"val1\" param2=\"val2\" paramN=\"valN\"/>";
List<Dictionary<string, string>> result = new List<Dictionary<string, string>>();
string[] tokens = Regex.Split(example, "/><\\?TAG|<\\?TAG|/>");
foreach (string token in tokens) if (token.Length > 0)
{
Dictionary<string, string> parameters = new Dictionary<string, string>();
string[] parms = token.Split(' ');
foreach (string parm in parms) if (parm.Length > 0)
{
string[] keyvalue = Regex.Split(parm, "=\"|\"");
parameters.Add(keyvalue[0], keyvalue[1]);
}
result.Add(parameters);
}
Console.WriteLine("TAGs detected: " + result.Count);
foreach (Dictionary<string, string> token in result)
{
Console.WriteLine("TAG");
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> kvp in token)
Console.WriteLine("Key = {0}, Value = {1}", kvp.Key, kvp.Value);
}
}
}
I've finally solved using this code (provided by a friend of mine). The trick was the Regex used for splitting individual elements. Thank you for the support, I will make use of the tip about xml parser in future :)