Serialize an object directly to a JObject instead of to a string in json.net

Question

How might one serialize an object directly to a JObject instance in JSON.Net? What is typically done is to convert the object directly to a json string like so:

string jsonSTRINGResult = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(someObj); 

One could then deserialize that back to a JObject as follows:

JObject jObj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<JObject>(jsonSTRINGResult); 

That seems to work, but it would seem like this way has a double performance hit (serialize and then deserialize). Does SerializeObject internally use a JObject that can be accessed somehow? Or is there some way to just serialize directly to a JObject?

Answer 1

You can use FromObject static method of JObject

JObject jObj = JObject.FromObject(someObj) 

http://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/M_Newtonsoft_Json_Linq_JObject_FromObject.htm

Answer 2

Please note that the JObject route suggested by @Eser will work only for non-array CLR objects. It results in below exception if you try converting an Array object to JObject:

An unhandled exception of type 'System.InvalidCastException' occurred in Newtonsoft.Json.dll

Additional information: Unable to cast object of type 'Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JArray' to type 'Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JObject'.

So, in case it is an array object then you should be using JArray instead as shown in the code snippet below:

using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;  JArray jArray = JArray.FromObject(someArrayObject);