jsonconvert-serializeobject

C# – Serialize a dictionary to JSON

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When you want to convert a dictionary to a JSON string, you can use the built-in JsonSerializer (from System.Text.Json) to serialize the dictionary. Here’s an example: Note: This is passing in WriteIndented=true to pretty print the JSON string for readability. This serializes the dictionary to a JSON string with the following format: I’ll show more … Read more

C# – Ignore null properties during JSON serialization

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By default, null properties are included during JSON serialization like this: There are two ways to ignore null properties: In this article, I’ll show examples of these two ways to ignore null properties. I’ll show how to do it with System.Text.Json and Newtonsoft. Ignore null properties with System.Text.Json Use JsonIgnoreCondition.WhenWritingNull to ignore null properties. You … Read more

C# – Deserialize JSON to a derived type

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The simplest way to deserialize JSON to a derived type is to put the type name in the JSON string. Then during deserialization, match the type name property against a set of known derived types and deserialize to the target type. System.Text.Json doesn’t have this functionality out of the box. That’s because there’s a known … Read more

C# – Populate an existing object with JSON

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Normally when you’re working with JSON, you deserialize it to a target type and get back an initialized and fully populated object. How about if you need to initialize an object yourself, and then populate it with JSON later? For example, let’s say you want to load the following JSON array into a case-insensitive HashSet: … Read more

C# – Convert an object to JSON

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Converting an object to a JSON string is referred to as serialization. The best way to do serialization is by using a good JSON serializer. There are two primary options: I’ll show examples of both options below. Using JsonSerializer.Serialize() (in the built-in System.Text.Json) Here’s an example of using the built-in JsonSerializer.Serialize() (in System.Text.Json) to convert … Read more

C# – How to programmatically update the User Secrets file

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User Secrets are stored in secrets.json. This file is specific to your application. Once you know the path of secrets.json, you can load and update it. Here’s an example of how to update secrets.json programmatically: Note: 1) For brevity, this isn’t showing all using statements. 2) This is using Newtonsoft because it’s better than System.Text.Json … Read more

C# – How to update appsettings.json programmatically

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You have to overwrite the appsettings.json file to be able to update values programmatically. You have to deal with the whole file, not individual parts of it. The process can be summarized in the following steps: There are two options for deserialization. You can either 1) Deserialize appsettings.json into a dynamic object or 2) Load … Read more

C# – Newtonsoft extension methods for HttpClient

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System.Net.Http.Json provides extension methods that simplify getting and sending JSON with HttpClient. Internally, it uses System.Text.Json for serialization. What if you want to use Newtonsoft instead of System.Text.Json? You can use the following extension methods for that: These are modeled off of the extension methods in System.Net.Http.Json. HttpClient is used to fetch the JSON content … Read more

C# – Serialize a tuple to JSON

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When you serialize a tuple to JSON, it uses the the underlying ValueTuple’s field names – Item1 and Item2. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a named tuple, it won’t use the names you specified in the tuple declaration. This behavior is the same with Newtonsoft and System.Text.Json. Here’s an example of serializing a named … Read more

Newtonsoft: Self referencing loop detected for property

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Problem When you try to serialize an object using Newtonsoft.Json and there’s a circular reference, you get the following exception: Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializationException: Self referencing loop detected for property Here’s an example of code that results in this exception: The Parent object references the Child object, which references the Parent object. Hence, a circular reference (aka a … Read more

Common Newtonsoft.Json options in System.Text.Json

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If you’re switching from Newtonsoft.Json to System.Text.Json (or vice versa), you may be wondering how to specify the common options you’re used to using in Newtonsoft. For example, how do you specify the equivalent of Newtonsoft.Json.Converters.StringEnumConverter in System.Text.Json? The following table shows a few common serialization options used in Newtonsoft.Json and their equivalents in System.Text.Json. … Read more