Parsing Json string using Json.NET

Question

I am using Json.NET in order to parse a json string but when i try to use SelectToken it returns null. Also it seems that Json.NET read the json string as 1 node

here is the JSON

[
   [{
      "input_index":0,
      "candidate_index":0,
      "delivery_line_1":"124 Main St",
      "last_line":"Cambridge MA 02138-5813",
      "delivery_point_barcode":"021385813991",
      "components":{
         "primary_number":"125",
         "street_name":"Main",
         "street_suffix":"St",
         "city_name":"Cambridge",
         "state_abbreviation":"MA",
         "zipcode":"02138",
         "plus4_code":"5813",
         "delivery_point":"99",
         "delivery_point_check_digit":"1"
      },
      "metadata":{
         "record_type":"H",
         "county_fips":"25017",
         "county_name":"New York",
         "carrier_route":"C025",
         "congressional_district":"08",
         "building_default_indicator":"Y"
      },
      "analysis":{
         "dpv_match_code":"D",
         "dpv_footnotes":"AAN1",
         "dpv_cmra":"N",
         "dpv_vacant":"N",
         "ews_match":false,
         "footnotes":"A#H#N#"
      }
   }]
]

and here is the code

JArray o = JArray.Parse(page);
string something = (string)o.SelectToken("county_name");

However it just returns me null and i am totally confused as there is something wrong with JSON.NET parsing this Json string

Answer 1

See: What is the JSON.NET equivalent of XML's XPath, SelectNodes, SelectSingleNode?

var data = GetJson();

//You can use the SelectToken to get the value similar to XPath.
var value = JArray.Parse(data)
                  .SelectToken("[0][0].metadata.county_name")
                  .Value<string>();

This can be extended to support multiple elements:

var jArray = JArray.Parse(data);
var countyNames = new List<string>();

foreach(var element in jArray.SelectToken("[0]"))
{
    var value = element.SelectToken("metadata.county_name").Value<string>();

    countyNames.Add(value);
}

Answer 2

So, the issue is that you basically have a wrapper around your actual object. You basically have:

Array of objects
  Object
    Metadata
    etc

So basically, get the first JToken out of the JArray and access the metadata from there.