Json.NET - Quick Starts & API Documentation
Serializing Collections
The JsonSerializer has great support for serializing and deserializing collections of objects.
Serializing
To serialize a collection - a generic list, array, dictionary, or your own custom collection - simply call the serializer with the object you want to get JSON for. Json.NET will serialize the collection and all of the values it contains.
Product p1 = new Product
{
Name = "Product 1",
Price = 99.95m,
ExpiryDate = new DateTime(2000, 12, 29, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc),
};
Product p2 = new Product
{
Name = "Product 2",
Price = 12.50m,
ExpiryDate = new DateTime(2009, 7, 31, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc),
};
List<Product> products = new List<Product>();
products.Add(p1);
products.Add(p2);
string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(products, Formatting.Indented);
//[
// {
// "Name": "Product 1",
// "ExpiryDate": "\/Date(978048000000)\/",
// "Price": 99.95,
// "Sizes": null
// },
// {
// "Name": "Product 2",
// "ExpiryDate": "\/Date(1248998400000)\/",
// "Price": 12.50,
// "Sizes": null
// }
//]
Deserializing
To deserialize JSON into a .NET collection just specify the collection type you want to deserialize to. Json.NET supports a wide range of collection types.
string json = @"[
{
""Name"": ""Product 1"",
""ExpiryDate"": ""\/Date(978048000000)\/"",
""Price"": 99.95,
""Sizes"": null
},
{
""Name"": ""Product 2"",
""ExpiryDate"": ""\/Date(1248998400000)\/"",
""Price"": 12.50,
""Sizes"": null
}
]";
List<Product> products = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<Product>>(json);
Console.WriteLine(products.Count);
// 2
Product p1 = products[0];
Console.WriteLine(p1.Name);
// Product 1
Deserializing Dictionaries
Using Json.NET you can also deserialize a JSON object into a .NET generic dictionary. The JSON object's property names and values will be added to the dictionary.
string json = @"{""key1"":""value1"",""key2"":""value2""}";
Dictionary<string, string> values = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, string>>(json);
Console.WriteLine(values.Count);
// 2
Console.WriteLine(values["key1"]);
// value1