Unexpected character encountered while parsing JSON string

Question

Any idea what could be wrong with this JSON string?

"\"iccid\":\"8500000000000000005\",\"msisdn\":\"4485000000005\",\"comment\":null,\"lastSessionStart\":1480120318000,\"lastSessionEnd\":1480120456000,\"simStatus\":\"Live\",\"activated\":true,\"enabled\":true,\"connected\":false,\"usage\":73728}"

I tried unescaping it by:

json = json.Replace("\\\"", "");

but I'm still getting this error:

Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: 1. Path 'lastSessionStart', line 1, position 91.

JSONLint.com says it's a valid JSON format.

'{"iccid":"8500000000000000005","msisdn":"4485000000005","comment":null,"lastSessionStart":1480120318000,"lastSessionEnd":1480120456000,"simStatus":"Live","activated":true,"enabled":true,"connected":false,"usage":73728}' — J.K

Brian Rogers Brian Rogers · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-26T04:42:28

If this is your actual JSON string, it looks like it is double-serialized. To get the data out, you'll need to deserialize it twice: once the get the unescaped JSON, and once to get the actual data.

Using json = json.Replace("\\\"", ""); to try to unescape the string will not work properly-- that will actually remove the all the quotes in addition to the backslashes, making the JSON invalid.

Try like this instead, where json is the string in your question:

string unescapedJson = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<string>(json);
Data data = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Data>(unescapedJson);

and Data is the following class:

public class Data
{
    public string iccid { get; set; }
    public string msisdn { get; set; }
    public string comment { get; set; }
    public long lastSessionStart { get; set; }
    public long lastSessionEnd { get; set; }
    public string simStatus { get; set; }
    public bool activated { get; set; }
    public bool enabled { get; set; }
    public bool connected { get; set; }
    public int usage { get; set; }
}

Fiddle: https://dotnetfiddle.net/DOiSUx

Unexpected character encountered while parsing JSON string

1 Answers