C# – JSON value could not be converted to System.String

When you send a request to ASP.NET with a JSON body, you get the following exception: System.Text.Json.JsonException: The JSON value could not be converted to System.String. Path: $ | LineNumber: 0 | BytePositionInLine: 1. You can’t deserialize JSON to a string. You’re either using a string parameter with [FromBody] or your model has a string … Read more

C# – Deserialize JSON with a specific constructor

When your class has multiple constructors, you can use the JsonConstructor attribute to specify which constructor to use during deserialization. Here’s an example. The Person class has two constructors. I put the JsonConstructor attribute on one of the constructors: Note: JsonConstructor for System.Text.Json was added in .NET 5. Now deserialize a JSON string to the … Read more

C# – Deserialize JSON to a derived type

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# – Deserialize JSON as a stream

Here’s an example of deserializing JSON from a file as a stream with System.Text.Json: Stream deserialization has three main benefits: In this article, I’ll go into details about these benefits and show a few other stream serialization scenarios. Benefits of deserializing as a stream Performance There are two ways to deserialize JSON: Deserializing a stream … Read more

C# – Deserializing JSON with quoted numbers

There are two ways to represent numbers in JSON: as number literals (ex: 123) or as quoted numbers (ex: “123”). In this article, I’ll explain how quoted numbers are handled during deserialization in Newtonsoft and System.Text.Json and how to change the behavior. At the end, I’ll show how to write quoted numbers during serialization. Quoted … Read more

System.Text.Json – How to serialize non-public properties

By default, System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer only serializes public properties. If you want to serialize non-public properties, you have two options: In this article, I’ll show examples of both approaches for handling non-public properties. Updated 2022-02-22 to explain the new JsonInclude attribute added in .NET 5. Write a custom JSON converter to serialize non-public properties When the built-in … Read more

JsonException: A possible object cycle was detected

When you use System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer to serialize an object that has a cycle, you get the following exception: System.Text.Json.JsonException: A possible object cycle was detected which is not supported. This can either be due to a cycle or if the object depth is larger than the maximum allowed depth of 0. In .NET 6+, you can … Read more