If you're after a lightweight, no-added-references kind of approach, maybe this bit of code I just wrote will work (I can't 100% guarantee robustness though).
using System;using System.Collections.Generic;using System.Text;using System.Text.RegularExpressions;public Dictionary<string, object> ParseJSON(string json){ int end; return ParseJSON(json, 0, out end);}private Dictionary<string, object> ParseJSON(string json, int start, out int end){ Dictionary<string, object> dict = new Dictionary<string, object>(); bool escbegin = false; bool escend = false; bool inquotes = false; string key = null; int cend; StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); Dictionary<string, object> child = null; List<object> arraylist = null; Regex regex = new Regex(@"\\u([0-9a-z]{4})", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase); int autoKey = 0; for (int i = start; i < json.Length; i++) { char c = json[i]; if (c == '\\') escbegin = !escbegin; if (!escbegin) { if (c == '"') { inquotes = !inquotes; if (!inquotes && arraylist != null) { arraylist.Add(DecodeString(regex, sb.ToString())); sb.Length = 0; } continue; } if (!inquotes) { switch (c) { case '{': if (i != start) { child = ParseJSON(json, i, out cend); if (arraylist != null) arraylist.Add(child); else { dict.Add(key, child); key = null; } i = cend; } continue; case '}': end = i; if (key != null) { if (arraylist != null) dict.Add(key, arraylist); else dict.Add(key, DecodeString(regex, sb.ToString())); } return dict; case '[': arraylist = new List<object>(); continue; case ']': if (key == null) { key = "array"+ autoKey.ToString(); autoKey++; } if (arraylist != null && sb.Length > 0) { arraylist.Add(sb.ToString()); sb.Length = 0; } dict.Add(key, arraylist); arraylist = null; key = null; continue; case ',': if (arraylist == null && key != null) { dict.Add(key, DecodeString(regex, sb.ToString())); key = null; sb.Length = 0; } if (arraylist != null && sb.Length > 0) { arraylist.Add(sb.ToString()); sb.Length = 0; } continue; case ':': key = DecodeString(regex, sb.ToString()); sb.Length = 0; continue; } } } sb.Append(c); if (escend) escbegin = false; if (escbegin) escend = true; else escend = false; } end = json.Length - 1; return dict; //theoretically shouldn't ever get here}private string DecodeString(Regex regex, string str){ return Regex.Unescape(regex.Replace(str, match => char.ConvertFromUtf32(Int32.Parse(match.Groups[1].Value, System.Globalization.NumberStyles.HexNumber))));}[I realise that this violates the OP Limitation #1, but technically, you didn't write it, I did]
