Serialize C# Enum Definition to Json

Question

Given the following in C#:

[Flags]
public enum MyFlags {
  None = 0,
  First = 1 << 0,
  Second = 1 << 1,
  Third = 1 << 2,
  Fourth = 1 << 3
}  

Are there any existing methods in ServiceStack.Text for serializing to the following JSON?

{
  "MyFlags": {
    "None": 0,
    "First": 1,
    "Second": 2,
    "Third": 4,
    "Fourth": 8
  }
}

Currently I'm using the routine below, are there better ways to do this?

public static string ToJson(this Type type)
    {
        var stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
        Array values = Enum.GetValues(type);
        stringBuilder.Append(string.Format(@"{{ ""{0}"": {{", type.Name));

        foreach (Enum value in values)
        {
            stringBuilder.Append(
                string.Format(
                    @"""{0}"": {1},", 
                    Enum.GetName(typeof(Highlights), value), 
                    Convert.ChangeType(value, value.GetTypeCode())));
        }

        stringBuilder.Remove(stringBuilder.Length - 1, 1);
        stringBuilder.Append("}}");
        return stringBuilder.ToString();
    }

Answer 1

public static class EnumExtensions
{
    public static string EnumToJson(this Type type)
    {
        if (!type.IsEnum)
            throw new InvalidOperationException("enum expected");

        var results =
            Enum.GetValues(type).Cast<object>()
                .ToDictionary(enumValue => enumValue.ToString(), enumValue => (int) enumValue);


        return string.Format("{{ \"{0}\" : {1} }}", type.Name, Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(results));

    }
}

Using a dictionary of to do the heavy lifting. Then using Newtonsoft's json convert to convert that to json. I just had to do a bit of wrapping to add the type name on.

Answer 2

You're better off populating a Dictionary<string,int> or a Typed DTO and serializing that.