CODEWITHSUNDEEP
asp.net-mvcjson.net
Rabbi
Rabbi

Reputation: 4722

Serialize Json.net back to JSON

How do I take a Json.net object and turn it back into a string of json? I deserialize a json packet that I get from a rest service. Then I process it and end up with an array of JObjects. But then I need to turn it back into a JSON string to send it to the browser.

If I had regular objects then I could just call JsonConvert.Serialize() but that doesn't work on Json.net JObjects

Upvotes: 0

Views: 346

Answers (1)

Brian Rogers
Brian Rogers

Reputation: 129817

If you have a JObject, or a JArray containing JObjects, you can simply call ToString() on the JObject (or JArray) to get the JSON string. For example:

JObject jo = new JObject();
jo.Add("foo", "bar");
jo.Add("fizz", "buzz");

JObject jo2 = new JObject();
jo2.Add("foo", "baz");
jo2.Add("fizz", "bang");

JArray ja = new JArray();
ja.Add(jo);
ja.Add(jo2);

string json = ja.ToString();
Console.WriteLine(json);

Resulting JSON output:

[
  {
    "foo": "bar",
    "fizz": "buzz"
  },
  {
    "foo": "baz",
    "fizz": "bang"
  }
]

If you have a regular array of JObjects, you can pass it to JsonConvert.SerializeObject():

JObject[] arrayOfJObjects = new JObject[] { jo, jo2 };
json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(arrayOfJObjects, Formatting.Indented);
Console.WriteLine(json);

This gives exactly the same JSON output as shown above.

JsonConvert.SerializeObject() also works fine on a single JObject:

json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(jo, Formatting.Indented);
Console.WriteLine(json);

Output:

{
  "foo": "bar",
  "fizz": "buzz"
}

EDIT

I just noticed the ASP.NET MVC tag on your question.

If you're inside an MVC controller method then presumably you are doing something like this:

return Json(arrayOfJObjects);

which will not work. This is because MVC uses the JavaScriptSerializer, which does not know about Json.Net JObjects. What you need to do in this case is create your JSON using one of the methods I listed above, then return it from your controller method using the Content method like this:

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(arrayOfJObjects);

return Content(json, "application/json");

Upvotes: 1

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