How to keep JSON value as String?

Question

This is the JSON string:

{"name":"Chris","home":[],"children":[{"name":"Belle"},{"name":"O"}]}

I normally create custom object like this:

public class Child
{
    public string name { get; set; }
}

public class RootObject
{
    [DataMember]
    public string name { get; set; }
    [DataMember]
    public List<object> home { get; set; }
    [DataMember]
    public List<Child> children { get; set; }
}

But now I don't want children as List,

I just want to record/serialize children as String, not Child. Meaning that I just don't mind keeping this part: [{"name":"Belle"},{"name":"O"}] as STRING, NOT Array/List.

How can I do that? I am using DataContractJSONSeriliazer.ReadObject method.

Answer 1

Since you don't mind using another library I would propose NewtonSoft JSON.NET. There are classes there (JObject, JArray, etc.) which can represent arbitrary JSON data as a part of some strongly typed object. I was using this in order to deserialize some large JSON that only small part of was interesting to me. I could deserialize whole JSON, modify the part that was important and serialize back, keeping the irrelevant part untouched.

Here is as code sample to get your children as string, even though it is an array in JSON. What is important is that you could modify content of other fields (name and home) and serialize whole thing back, and children in JSON output would remain an array with original content.

Assuming

using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;

here's the code sample:

public class RootObject
{
    public string name;
    public List<object> home;
    public JArray children; // I don't care what children may contain
}

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string sourceJSON =
          @"{""name"":""Chris"",""home"":[],""children"":[{""name"":""Belle""},{""name"":""O""}]}";
        RootObject rootObject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(sourceJSON);
        string partAsString = rootObject.children.ToString(Formatting.None);
        // partAsString is now: [{"name":"Belle"},{"name":"O"}]
    }
}

Answer 2

Based on my understanding of your question, you can use Json.Net, and add a dummy property.

internal class Program
{
    private static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string json = "{\"name\":\"Chris\",\"home\":[],\"children\":[{\"name\":\"Belle\"},{\"name\":\"O\"}]}";

        RootObject result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(json);

        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

public class Child
{
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

public class RootObject
{
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "home")]
    public List<object> Home { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "children")]
    public List<Child> ChildrenCollection { get; set; }

    [JsonIgnore]
    public string Children
    {
        get
        {
            // You can format the result the way you want here. 
            return string.Join(",", ChildrenCollection.Select(x => x.Name));
        }
    }
}