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c#jsonasp.net-mvcserializationjson.net
Andrus
Andrus

Reputation: 27975

How to serialize only not null properties in derived class in Json.Net

Entity objects needs converted to string to store them in log file for human reading. Properties may added to derived entities at runtime. Serialize is defined in entity base class. I triesd code below but it returns properties with null values also. Since many properties have null values, it makes logs difficult to read.

Hoq to serialize only not-null properties ? I tried also 

        var jsonSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings()
        {
            DefaultValueHandling = DefaultValueHandling.Ignore,
            Formatting = Formatting.Indented,
            TypeNameHandling= TypeNameHandling.All
        };
        return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(this, GetType(), jsonSettings);

this serializes only EntityBase class properties as confirmed in newtonsoft json does not serialize derived class properties

public class EntityBase {

        public string Serialize()
        {
            var s = new System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer();
            s.Serialize(this);

        }
     }

public class Customer: EntityBase {
  public string Name, Address;
  }

testcase:

  var cust= new Customer() { Name="Test"};
  Debug.Writeline( cust.Serialize());

Observed: result contains "Address": null

Expected: result shoud not contain Address property.

ASP.NET/Mono MVC4, .NET 4.6 are used

Upvotes: 1

Views: 4948

Answers (1)

Robert L.
Robert L.

Reputation: 1529

You can create your own serializer to ignore null properties.

            JsonConvert.SerializeObject(
                object, 
                Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.None, 
                new JsonSerializerSettings
                {
                    NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore
                });

Upvotes: 7

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