title: Parse JSON in C#
body: <p>I'm trying to parse some JSON data from the Google AJAX Search API. I have <a href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/web?v=1.0&amp;q=cheese&amp;rsz=large" rel="noreferrer">this URL</a> and I'd like to break it down so that the results are displayed. I've currently written this code, but I'm pretty lost in regards of what to do next, although there are a number of examples out there with simplified JSON strings.</p>
  
  <p>Being new to C# and .NET in general I've struggled to get a genuine text output for my ASP.NET page so I've been recommended to give JSON.NET a try. Could anyone point me in the right direction to just simply writing some code that'll take in JSON from the Google AJAX Search API and print it out to the screen?</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT:</strong> ALL FIXED! All results are working fine. Thank you again Dreas Grech!</p>
  
  <pre><code>using System;
  using System.Data;
  using System.Configuration;
  using System.Web;
  using System.Web.Security;
  using System.Web.UI;
  using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
  using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
  using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
  using System.ServiceModel.Web;
  using System.Runtime.Serialization;
  using System.Runtime.Serialization.Json;
  using System.IO;
  using System.Text;
  
  public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
  {
      protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
      {
          GoogleSearchResults g1 = new GoogleSearchResults();
          const string json = @"{""responseData"": {""results"":[{""GsearchResultClass"":""GwebSearch"",""unescapedUrl"":""http://www.cheese.com/"",""url"":""http://www.cheese.com/"",""visibleUrl"":""www.cheese.com"",""cacheUrl"":""http://www.google.com/search?q\u003dcache:bkg1gwNt8u4J:www.cheese.com"",""title"":""\u003cb\u003eCHEESE\u003c/b\u003e.COM - All about \u003cb\u003echeese\u003c/b\u003e!."",""titleNoFormatting"":""CHEESE.COM - All about cheese!."",""content"":""\u003cb\u003eCheese\u003c/b\u003e - everything you want to know about it. Search \u003cb\u003echeese\u003c/b\u003e by name, by types   of milk, by textures and by countries.""},{""GsearchResultClass"":""GwebSearch"",""unescapedUrl"":""http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese"",""url"":""http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese"",""visibleUrl"":""en.wikipedia.org"",""cacheUrl"":""http://www.google.com/search?q\u003dcache:n9icdgMlCXIJ:en.wikipedia.org"",""title"":""\u003cb\u003eCheese\u003c/b\u003e - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"",""titleNoFormatting"":""Cheese - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"",""content"":""\u003cb\u003eCheese\u003c/b\u003e is a food consisting of proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of   cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. It is produced by coagulation of the milk \u003cb\u003e...\u003c/b\u003e""},{""GsearchResultClass"":""GwebSearch"",""unescapedUrl"":""http://www.ilovecheese.com/"",""url"":""http://www.ilovecheese.com/"",""visibleUrl"":""www.ilovecheese.com"",""cacheUrl"":""http://www.google.com/search?q\u003dcache:GBhRR8ytMhQJ:www.ilovecheese.com"",""title"":""I Love \u003cb\u003eCheese\u003c/b\u003e!, Homepage"",""titleNoFormatting"":""I Love Cheese!, Homepage"",""content"":""The American Dairy Association\u0026#39;s official site includes recipes and information   on nutrition and storage of \u003cb\u003echeese\u003c/b\u003e.""},{""GsearchResultClass"":""GwebSearch"",""unescapedUrl"":""http://www.gnome.org/projects/cheese/"",""url"":""http://www.gnome.org/projects/cheese/"",""visibleUrl"":""www.gnome.org"",""cacheUrl"":""http://www.google.com/search?q\u003dcache:jvfWnVcSFeQJ:www.gnome.org"",""title"":""\u003cb\u003eCheese\u003c/b\u003e"",""titleNoFormatting"":""Cheese"",""content"":""\u003cb\u003eCheese\u003c/b\u003e uses your webcam to take photos and videos, applies fancy special effects   and lets you share the fun with others. It was written as part of Google\u0026#39;s \u003cb\u003e...\u003c/b\u003e""}],""cursor"":{""pages"":[{""start"":""0"",""label"":1},{""start"":""4"",""label"":2},{""start"":""8"",""label"":3},{""start"":""12"",""label"":4},{""start"":""16"",""label"":5},{""start"":""20"",""label"":6},{""start"":""24"",""label"":7},{""start"":""28"",""label"":8}],""estimatedResultCount"":""14400000"",""currentPageIndex"":0,""moreResultsUrl"":""http://www.google.com/search?oe\u003dutf8\u0026ie\u003dutf8\u0026source\u003duds\u0026start\u003d0\u0026hl\u003den-GB\u0026q\u003dcheese""}}, ""responseDetails"": null, ""responseStatus"": 200}";
          g1 = JSONHelper.Deserialise&lt;GoogleSearchResults&gt;(json);
          Response.Write(g1.content);
      }
  }
  
  public class JSONHelper
  {
      public static T Deserialise&lt;T&gt;(string json)
      {
          T obj = Activator.CreateInstance&lt;T&gt;();
          MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(json));
          DataContractJsonSerializer serialiser = new DataContractJsonSerializer(obj.GetType());
          ms.Close();
          return obj;
      }
  }
  /// Deserialise from JSON
  [Serializable]
  public class GoogleSearchResults
  {
      public GoogleSearchResults() { }
      public GoogleSearchResults(string _unescapedUrl, string _url, string _visibleUrl, string _cacheUrl, string _title, string _titleNoFormatting, string _content)
      {
          this.unescapedUrl = _unescapedUrl;
          this.url = _url;
          this.visibleUrl = _visibleUrl;
          this.cacheUrl = _cacheUrl;
          this.title = _title;
          this.titleNoFormatting = _titleNoFormatting;
          this.content = _content;
      }
  
      string _unescapedUrl;
      string _url;
      string _visibleUrl;
      string _cacheUrl;
      string _title;
      string _titleNoFormatting;
      string _content;
  
      [DataMember]
      public string unescapedUrl
      {
          get { return _unescapedUrl; }
          set { _unescapedUrl = value; }
      }
  
      [DataMember]
      public string url
      {
          get { return _url; }
          set { _url = value; }
      }
  
      [DataMember]
      public string visibleUrl
      {
          get { return _visibleUrl; }
          set { _visibleUrl = value; }
      }
      [DataMember]
      public string cacheUrl
      {
          get { return _cacheUrl; }
          set { _cacheUrl = value; }
      }
  
      [DataMember]
      public string title
      {
          get { return _title; }
          set { _title = value; }
      }
  
      [DataMember]
      public string titleNoFormatting
      {
          get { return _titleNoFormatting; }
          set { _titleNoFormatting = value; }
      }
  
      [DataMember]
      public string content
      {
          get { return _content; }
          set { _content = value; }
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The code currently compiles and runs perfectly, but isn't returning any results. Could someone help me with returning what I require, the results ready to print out to the screen?</p>
  
  <p><strong>Edit:</strong></p>
  
  <p>Json.NET works using the same JSON and classes as the example above.</p>
  
  <pre><code>GoogleSearchResults g1 = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject&lt;GoogleSearchResults&gt;(json);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Link: <a href="http://james.newtonking.com/projects/json/help/index.html?topic=html/SerializingJSON.htm" rel="noreferrer">Serializing and Deserializing JSON with Json.NET</a></p>
  
  <h2>Related</h2>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/802766/c-parsing-json-formatted-data-into-nested-hashtables">C# - parsing json formatted data into nested hashtables</a><br>
  <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/854028/parse-json-array">Parse JSON array</a></p>