{"id":3799,"date":"2017-07-06T08:06:35","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T15:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.couchbase.com\/blog\/?p=3799"},"modified":"2025-06-13T20:57:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T03:57:05","slug":"xml-json-conversion-json-net","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.couchbase.com\/blog\/xml-json-conversion-json-net\/","title":{"rendered":"Converting XML to JSON In C# Using Json.NET"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Converting XML to JSON data that can be loaded into Couchbase Server can be accomplished with a little bit of .NET<\/span>. Depending on the source of the data, you might be able to use a tool like Talend<\/a>. But you may also want to write a simple C# .NET application with Newtonsoft\u2019s Json.NET<\/a> to do it. In this article, I\u2019m going to show you how to convert XML to JSON in C# using Json.NET.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"10<\/a>Not using Couchbase Server? No problem, this is a pretty generic example. But consider the advantages of having a full-featured database using JSON at the center of your solution; indexing, querying, searching, analytics, mobile support are all built-in and accessible with a .NET SDK<\/a>. See more advantages in our technical whitepaper<\/a> or download Couchbase<\/a> and follow along with this post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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XML data<\/h2>\n
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For the purposes of this tutorial, I\u2019m going to use a very simple XML example. If your XML is more complex (multiple attributes, for instance), then your approach will also have to be more complex. (Json.NET can handle all XML to Json conversions, but it follows a specific set of conversion rules<\/a>). Here\u2019s a sample piece of data:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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            var xml = @\"\r\n<Invoice>\r\n    <Timestamp>1\/1\/2017 00:01<\/Timestamp>\r\n    <CustNumber>12345<\/CustNumber>\r\n    <AcctNumber>54321<\/AcctNumber>\r\n<\/Invoice>\";<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Notice that I\u2019ve got this XML as a hardcoded string in C#. In a real-life situation, you would likely be pulling XML from a database, a REST API, XML files, etc.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Once you have the raw XML, you can create an XmlDocument<\/code> object (XmlDocument<\/code> lives in the System.Xml<\/code> namespace).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();\r\ndoc.LoadXml(xml);<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Conversion with Json.NET<\/h2>\n
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Once you have an XmlDocument<\/code> object, you can use Json.NET to convert that object into a Json representation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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var json = JsonConvert.SerializeXmlNode(doc, Formatting.None, true);<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In this example, I\u2019m asking Json.NET to serialize an XML node:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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