VB.NET: Basic JSON and LINQ

A simple console application that downloads and processes JSON data using .NET 4.0 with the Newtonsoft Json.NET library. The sample data is a list of kings and queens of England and the UK from http://mysafeinfo.com/api/data?list=englishmonarchs&format=json. This uses simple LINQ but the Newstonsoft LINQ to JSON API will be more efficient in many cases.

Mysafeinfo.com returns its data as a list of JSON objects — [{}, {}, {}] — so on line 32 we tell the DeserializeObject() method that the objects to deserialize are embedded within another data type.

Imports System.Net
Imports System.IO
Imports Newtonsoft.Json
Imports System.Linq

Sub Main()
    Dim jsonURL As String = "http://mysafeinfo.com/api/data?list=englishmonarchs&format=json"
    Dim reader As StreamReader
    Dim errorMsg As String = Nothing

    Try
         Dim request As HttpWebRequest = CType(WebRequest.Create(jsonURL), HttpWebRequest)
         Dim response As HttpWebResponse = CType(request.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)
         reader = New StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream())
         Dim jsonStr As String = reader.ReadToEnd()

         'Console.Writeline(jsonStr)

         printJSON(jsonStr)

    Catch ex As WebException
          errorMsg = "Download failed. The response from the server was: " +
                 CType(ex.Response, HttpWebResponse).StatusDescription
          Console.WriteLine("Error: " + errorMsg)
    End Try
End Sub

Private Sub printJSON(jsonStr As String)
     ' Deserialize our JSON string, then filter and print it

     ' Json.NET deserializer gives you a list of .NET objects
     Dim monarchs = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(Of List(Of JSON_data))(jsonStr)

     ' Iterate over the objects and print each name property
     For Each monarch In monarchs
           Console.Writeline(monarch.nm)
     Next

     ' Set up a LINQ statement to filter the monarchs list
     Dim monarchList = From monarch In monarchs Where monarch.nm.Contains("William") Select monarch

     ' Print the results of our LINQ query
     For Each monarch In monarchList
           Console.Writeline("King or Queen: " + monarch.nm + ", Years: " + monarch.yrs)
     Next
End Sub

Public Class JSON_data
    Public nm As String
    Public cty As String
    Public hse As String
    Public yrs As String
End Class