How to turn plain text json data into string?

Question

I am trying to mock up some test data to check wether a json string deserializes into an object correctly.

I have some json data which is 660 lines long, so i have only included a portion

{
"DataA": "string",
"DataB": "datetime",
"DataC": {
    "DataC1": "datetime",
    "DataC2": "datetime",
    "DataC3": "datetime",
    "DataC4": int,
    "DataC5": int,
    "DataC6": "string",
    "DataC7": int,
    "DataC8": "object"
},
"DataD": {
    "DataD1": decimal,
    "DataD2": decimal,
    "DataD3": "string",
    "DataD4": int,
    "DataD5": decimal,
    "DataD6": "string",
    "DataD7": {
        "DataD7i": null,
        "DataD7ii": [

I have created the corresponding classes, but am currently attempting to test them. However I am unable to get this json data into a string, as the double quotation marks close off the string. I have tried using ecsapes aswell but to no avail.

string testjson = "{
"DataA": "string",
"DataB": "datetime",
"DataC": {
    "DataC1": "datetime",
    "DataC2": "datetime",
    "DataC3": "datetime",
    "DataC4": int,
    "DataC5": int,
    "DataC6": "string",
    "DataC7": int,
    "DataC8": "object"
},
"DataD": {
    "DataD1": decimal,
    "DataD2": decimal,
    "DataD3": "string",
    "DataD4": int,
    "DataD5": decimal,
    "DataD6": "string",
    "DataD7": {
        "DataD7i": null,
        "DataD7ii": ["

I want to call

            ObjectA objectblah= JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ObjectA>(output);

But cannot manage to get the json into a string. I am aware this is a trivial issue, but I am new and am stuck on this issue. any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Answer 1

In my unit test projects, whenever I have "mass" text, I put that content into a separate text file. Then you have two choices:

1. Make that text file an embedded resource, which you can load via Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(...).
2. Or set the file's project property "Copy to output directory" to "If newer". Then just read it via File.ReadAllText.

Keeping it in a separate file makes editing/maintenance a lot easier.

Answer 2

Part of the issue looks to be the use of double quotes which can be escaped with a backslash \, however to have a multi-line string in C#, you also need to append an @ symbol at the start like shown in this answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/1100265/2603735