How do i deserialize this dictionary<string,string[]>

Question

I have the following json :

[
    {
        "Key": "tradepack",
        "Value": [
            "Select Tradepack"
        ]
    },
    {
        "Key": "route",
        "Value": [
            "Select Route"
        ]
    },
    {
        "Key": "recall",
        "Value": [
            "Select Recall Location"
        ]
    },
    {
        "Key": "stones",
        "Value": [
            "True"
        ]
    },
    {
        "Key": "quickstep",
        "Value": [
            "True"
        ]
    },
    {
        "Key": "dreamingdonkey",
        "Value": [
            "True"
        ]
    },
    {
        "Key": "meleeskills",
        "Value": []
    },
    {
        "Key": "rangedskills",
        "Value": []
    },
    {
        "Key": "buffedskills",
        "Value": []
    }
]

Im currently using this

String data = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(Application.StartupPath + "\\folder\\Data\\Config\\config.txt");
return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, object[]>>(data);

but i get the following error

Cannot deserialize the current JSON array (e.g. [1,2,3]) into type 'System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.String,System.Object[]]' because the type requires a JSON object (e.g. {"name":"value"}) to deserialize correctly. To fix this error either change the JSON to a JSON object (e.g. {"name":"value"}) or change the deserialized type to an array or a type that implements a collection interface (e.g. ICollection, IList) like List that can be deserialized from a JSON array. JsonArrayAttribute can also be added to the type to force it to deserialize from a JSON array. Path '', line 1, position 1.

Anyone care to explain as how i would solve this im a newb in c# especially serialization

Answer 1

Your json is an array/list. So you need to deserialize to something like this List<Dictionary<string, object>>

 var data = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<Dictionary<string, object>>>(json);

OR

var dict = JArray.Parse(json)
           .Select(x => x.ToObject<KeyValuePair<string, string[]>>())
           .ToDictionary(x => x.Key, x => x.Value);

Answer 2

Your data looks more like a KeyValuePair<string, string[]>[]. You can try deserializing to that, then creating a dictionary based on the result.

var kvps = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<KeyValuePair<String, String[]>[]>(data);
return kvps.ToDictionary((keyItem) => keyItem.Key, (valueItem) => valueItem.Value);