private static IDictionary<string, ParsedEntity> GetParsedEntities() { // read all entries string allEntitiesText = ReadEntitiesJsonFile(); var deserializedRawData = new JsonSerializer().Deserialize<IDictionary<string, ParsedEntity>>(new JsonTextReader(new StringReader(allEntitiesText))); // strip out all entries which aren't of the form "&entity;" foreach (var key in deserializedRawData.Keys.ToArray() /* dupe since we're mutating original structure */) { if (!key.StartsWith("&", StringComparison.Ordinal) || !key.EndsWith(";", StringComparison.Ordinal)) { deserializedRawData.Remove(key); } } return deserializedRawData; }