Dynamics 365 Business Central – JSON Object into a Dictionary Data Type

The Dictionary Data Type represents an unordered collection of keys and values and is optimized for fast lookup of values. Each addition to the dictionary consists of a value and its associated key. Every key in a Dictionary must be unique. It is on my list of favorite “new” AL Data Types, and I find it often easier to work with a dictionary than another object type.

In this example, a JSON Object’s value keys (not the array or object keys) are copied into a Dictionary Data Type variable.

procedure JsonObjectValuestoDictionary(JObject: JsonObject; var ObjectDictionary: Dictionary of [Text, Text])
var
    IsHandled: Boolean;
    JsonToken: JsonToken;
    DuplicateKeyErr: label 'Duplicate Key %1', Comment = '%1 Key Name';
    ObjectKeys: List of [Text];
    JKey: Text;
    JValue: Text;
begin
    Clear(ObjectDictionary);

    OnBeforeJsonObjectValuestoDictionary(JObject, ObjectDictionary, IsHandled);
    if IsHandled then
        exit;

    ObjectKeys := JObject.Keys();
    foreach JKey in ObjectKeys do begin
        JObject.Get(Jkey, JsonToken);
        if JsonToken.IsValue then begin
            if ObjectDictionary.ContainsKey(JKey) then
                Error(DuplicateKeyErr, JKey);
            JsonToken.WriteTo(JValue);
            ObjectDictionary.Add(DelChr(JKey, '=', '"'), DelChr(JValue, '=', '"'));
        end;
    end;

    OnAfterJsonObjectValuestoDictionary(JObject, ObjectDictionary);
end;

[BusinessEvent(false)]
local procedure OnAfterJsonObjectValuestoDictionary(JObject: JsonObject; var ObjectDictionary: Dictionary of [Text, Text])
begin
end;

[BusinessEvent(false)]
local procedure OnBeforeJsonObjectValuestoDictionary(JObject: JsonObject; var ObjectDictionary: Dictionary of [Text, Text]; var Handled: Boolean)
begin
end;

Note: The code and information discussed in this article are for informational and demonstration purposes only. This content was created referencing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2022 Wave 2 online.