Convert an Object to JSON in C#

Here you will learn how to convert C# object to JSON using Serialization.

JSON (Javascript Object Notation) is used for storing and data transfer. It is also used in API calls to exchange the data from API to different web applications or from browser to server and vice versa.

Serialization is the process of storing the state of an object and being able to recreate it when required. The reverse of it is known as Deserialization.

The .NET 5 framework provides the built-in JsonSerializer class in the System.Text.Json namespace to convert C# objects to JSON and vice-versa.

The .NET 4.x framework does not provide any built-in JsonSerializer class that converts objects to JSON. You have to install the NuGet package Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json in your project to include the System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer to your project which can be used to convert objects to JSON and vice-versa.

Convert an Object to a Minified JSON String

The following example shows the conversion of an object to a minified JSON string using the JsonSerializer class.Serialize method:

Example: Convert Object to JSON String

using System;
using System.Text.Json;

namespace ObjectToJSONConversion
{
    public class Department
    {
        public int DeptId { get; set; }
        public string DepartmentName { get; set; }
    }

    class Program
    {
        public static void Main()
        {
            Department dept= new Department() { DeptId = 101, DepartmentName= "IT" };
            string strJson = JsonSerializer.Serialize<Department>(dept);
            Console.WriteLine(strJson);
        }
    }
}

Try it

Output:

{"DeptId":101,"DepartmentName":"IT"}

As you can see, by default, the JSON string is minified in the above output.

Convert an Object to a Formatted JSON String

The following example shows the conversion of an object to the formatted JSON string:

Example: Convert Object to Formatted JSON String

using System;
using System.Text.Json;

namespace ObjectToJSONConversion
{
    public class Department
    {
        public int DeptId { get; set; }
        public string DepartmentName { get; set; }
    }

    class Program
    {
        public static void Main()
        {
            Department dept= new Department() { DeptId = 101, DepartmentName= "IT" };
            
            var opt = new JsonSerializerOptions(){ WriteIndented=true };
            string strJson = JsonSerializer.Serialize<Department>(dept, opt);
            Console.WriteLine(strJson);
        }
    }
}

Output:

{
    "DeptId": 101,
    "DepartmentName": "IT"
}

In the above example, we specified an option with WriteIndented=true as a parameter in the Serialize() method. This will return a formatted string with indentation.

Convert a List to a JSON String

The following converts a list collection of objects to JSON array.

Example: Convert List to JSON String

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text.Json;

namespace ObjectToJSONConversion
{
    public class Department
    {
        public int DeptId { get; set; }
        public string DepartmentName { get; set; }
    }

    class Program
    {
        public static void Main()
        {
            var deptList = new List<Department>(){
			new Department() { DeptId = 101, DepartmentName= "IT" },
			new Department() { DeptId = 102, DepartmentName= "Accounts" }
		};

		var opt = new JsonSerializerOptions(){ WriteIndented=true };
		string strJson = JsonSerializer.Serialize<IList<Department>>(deptList, opt);

        Console.WriteLine(strJson);
    }
}

Try it

Output:

[
  {
    "DeptId": 101,
    "DepartmentName": "IT"
  },
  {
    "DeptId": 102,
    "DepartmentName": "Accounts"
  }
]

Convert an Object to a UTF-8 String

Serialization to an utf-8 byte array is a bit faster than the string method. This is because the bytes of utf-8 is not required to convert to strings of utf-16.

The following example shows the conversion of an object to a minified JSON string using JsonSerializer.SerializeToUtf8Bytes method

Example: Convert Object to Utf-8 String

using System;
using System.Text.Json;

namespace ObjectToJSONConversion
{
    public class Department
    {
        public int DeptId { get; set; }
        public string DepartmentName { get; set; }
    }

    class Program
    {
        public static void Main()
        {
            Department dept= new Department() { DeptId = 101, DepartmentName= "IT" };
            
            byte[] utf8bytesJson = JsonSerializer.SerializeToUtf8Bytes(dept);
            string strJson = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(utf8bytesJson);
            Console.WriteLine(strJson);
        }
    }
}

Try it

Output:

{"DeptId":101,"DepartmentName":"IT"}

Thus, you can convert C# object to JSON in different ways for different versions using JsonConvert.Serialize() method in .NET 4.x and .NET 5.

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