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

Question

At present, the structure of my code uses XmlDocument to load Xml data and then SelectNodes to iterate through a list of repeating items.

For each element, I am using XmlNode.SelectSingleNode to pick out the field elements.

I now want to use JSON.NET to achieve the same results with documents delivered to me as JSON. The answer can be something other than JSON.net, so long as it's C# integrable.

Answer 1

Json.NET has SelectToken. It uses a syntax similar to DataBinder.Eval to get JSON via a string expression:

JObject o = JObject.Parse("{'People':[{'Name':'Jeff'},{'Name':'Joe'}]}");

// get name token of first person and convert to a string
string name = (string)o.SelectToken("People[0].Name");

Or if you wanted to select multiple values:

JObject o = JObject.Parse("{'People':[{'Name':'Jeff','Roles':['Manager', 'Admin']}]}");

// get role array token of first person and convert to a list of strings
IList<string> names = (string)o.SelectToken("People[0].Roles").Select(t => (string)t).ToList();

Documentation: Querying JSON with SelectToken

Answer 2

Do you have an object hierarchy that you can map the the JSON? You could create an object tree (i.e. deserialize the JSON), and use LINQ's Where, SelectMany, etc.