Imports System

Imports System.Linq

Imports System.Collections

Imports System.Collections.Generic

Imports System.Data

Imports System.IO

Imports System.Globalization

Imports System.Reflection

Imports System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations

Imports System.Xml.Linq

Imports System.Xml

​

Imports Newtonsoft.Json

Imports Newtonsoft.Json.Linq

Imports Newtonsoft.Json.Converters

Imports Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization

​

    ' https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53867959/wrong-json-format-cannot-deserialize-json-into-listof-string

​

    Public Module JsonExtensions  

        Public Function DeserializeAnonymousSequence(Of TElement)(ByVal json as String, ByVal template as TElement, Optional ByVal settings as JsonSerializerSettings = Nothing) As IEnumerable(Of TElement)

            Return DeserializeSequence(Of TElement)(new StringReader(json), settings)

        End Function

​

        Public Function DeserializeAnonymousSequence(Of TElement)(ByVal textReader as TextReader, ByVal template as TElement, Optional ByVal settings as JsonSerializerSettings = Nothing) As IEnumerable(Of TElement)

            Return DeserializeSequence(Of TElement)(textReader, settings)

        End Function

​

        Public Function DeserializeSequence(Of TElement)(ByVal json as String, Optional ByVal settings as JsonSerializerSettings = Nothing) As IEnumerable(Of TElement)

            Return DeserializeSequence(Of TElement)(new StringReader(json), settings)

        End Function

​

        ' Adapted from this answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/26610684/

        ' To https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26601594/what-is-the-correct-way-to-use-json-net-to-parse-stream-of-json-objects

        ' By Andrew Whitaker https://stackoverflow.com/users/497356/andrew-whitaker

        Public Iterator Function DeserializeSequence(Of TElement)(ByVal textReader as TextReader, Optional ByVal settings as JsonSerializerSettings = Nothing) As IEnumerable(Of TElement)

            Dim serializer as JsonSerializer = JsonSerializer.CreateDefault(settings)

            Using jsonReader as New JsonTextReader(textReader)

                jsonReader.CloseInput = false            ' Let caller close the reader

                jsonReader.SupportMultipleContent = true ' Required

                While jsonReader.Read()

                    Yield serializer.Deserialize(Of TElement)(jsonReader)

                End While

            End Using

        End Function

​

    End Module

​

    Public Module TestClass 

​

        Friend Sub Test()

            Dim json as String = GetJson()

            Console.WriteLine("Input JSON: ")

            Console.WriteLine(json)

            TestDeserialize(json)

            TestLinq(json)

        End Sub

​

        Friend Sub TestDeserialize(ByVal json as String)

            dim listOfList = (From a In JsonExtensions.DeserializeAnonymousSequence(json, New With { .data = DirectCast(Nothing, List(Of String)) })

                              Select a.data).ToList()

            dim list = (From a In JsonExtensions.DeserializeAnonymousSequence(json, New With { .data = DirectCast(Nothing, List(Of String)) })

                        From i In a.data

                        Select i).ToList()

​

            Console.WriteLine()

            Console.WriteLine("List of list of strings via deserialization: ")

            Console.WriteLine(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(listOfList))

            Console.WriteLine("List of strings via deserialization: ")

            Console.WriteLine(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(list))

        End Sub

​

        Sub TestLinq(ByVal json as String)

            Dim query = From obj in JsonExtensions.DeserializeSequence(Of JObject)(json)

                        From array in obj.Descendants().OfType(Of JArray)()

                        From item in array

                        Where item.Type = JTokenType.String 

                        Let str = Item.ToString()

                        Select str

            dim list as List(Of String) = query.ToList()

            Console.WriteLine()

            Console.WriteLine("List of strings via LINQ to JSON: ")

            Console.WriteLine(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(list))

​

        End Sub 

​

        Function GetJson() as String

Dim Jstring As String = <![CDATA[{data : [ "value 1", "value 2", "value 3"]}{data : [ "value 1", "value 2", "value 3"]}]]>.Value        

        Return Jstring      

        End Function

    End Module

​

    Public Module Module1   

        Public Sub Main()

        Console.WriteLine("Environment version: " & Environment.Version.ToString())

            Console.WriteLine("Json.NET version: " & GetType(JsonSerializer).Assembly.FullName)

            Console.WriteLine("")

​

            Try

​

                TestClass.Test()

​

            Catch ex as Exception

​

                Console.WriteLine("Unhandled exception: ")

                Console.WriteLine(ex)

                Throw

​

            End Try

        End Sub 

    End Module

​