.NET - JSON serialization of enum as string

Question

I have a class that contains an enum property, and upon serializing the object using JavaScriptSerializer, my json result contains the integer value of the enumeration rather than its string "name". Is there a way to get the enum as a string in my json without having to create a custom JavaScriptConverter? Perhaps there's an attribute that I could decorate the enum definition, or object property, with?

As an example:

enum Gender { Male, Female }

class Person
{
    int Age { get; set; }
    Gender Gender { get; set; }
}

Desired json result:

{ "Age": 35, "Gender": "Male" }

Answer 1

This is an old question but I thought I'd contribute just in case. In my projects I use separate models for any Json requests. A model would typically have same name as domain object with "Json" prefix. Models are mapped using AutoMapper. By having the json model declare a string property that is an enum on domain class, AutoMapper will resolve to it's string presentation.

In case you are wondering, I need separate models for Json serialized classes because inbuilt serializer comes up with circular references otherwise.

Hope this helps someone.

Answer 2

I wasn't able to change the source model like in the top answer (of @ob.), and I didn't want to register it globally like @Iggy. So I combined https://stackoverflow.com/a/2870420/237091 and @Iggy's https://stackoverflow.com/a/18152942/237091 to allow setting up the string enum converter on during the SerializeObject command itself:

Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(
    objectToSerialize, 
    Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.None, 
    new Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializerSettings()
    {
        Converters = new List<Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConverter> {
            new Newtonsoft.Json.Converters.StringEnumConverter()
        }
    })

Answer 3

@Iggy answer sets JSON serialization of c# enum as string only for ASP.NET (Web API and so).

But to make it work also with ad hoc serialization, add following to your start class (like Global.asax Application_Start)

//convert Enums to Strings (instead of Integer) globally
JsonConvert.DefaultSettings = (() =>
{
    var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings();
    settings.Converters.Add(new StringEnumConverter { CamelCaseText = true });
    return settings;
});

More information on the Json.NET page

Additionally, to have your enum member to serialize/deserialize to/from specific text, use the

System.Runtime.Serialization.EnumMember

attribute, like this:

public enum time_zone_enum
{
    [EnumMember(Value = "Europe/London")] 
    EuropeLondon,

    [EnumMember(Value = "US/Alaska")] 
    USAlaska
}

Answer 4

ASP.NET Core way:

public class Startup
{
  public IServiceProvider ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
  {
    services.AddMvc().AddJsonOptions(options =>
    {
      options.SerializerSettings.Converters.Add(new Newtonsoft.Json.Converters.StringEnumConverter());
    });
  }
}

https://gist.github.com/regisdiogo/27f62ef83a804668eb0d9d0f63989e3e

Answer 5

Not sure if this is still relevant but I had to write straight to a json file and I came up with the following piecing several stackoverflow answers together

public class LowercaseJsonSerializer
{
    private static readonly JsonSerializerSettings Settings = new JsonSerializerSettings
    {
        ContractResolver = new LowercaseContractResolver()
    };

    public static void Serialize(TextWriter file, object o)
    {
        JsonSerializer serializer = new JsonSerializer()
        {
            ContractResolver = new LowercaseContractResolver(),
            Formatting = Formatting.Indented,
            NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore
        };
        serializer.Converters.Add(new Newtonsoft.Json.Converters.StringEnumConverter());
        serializer.Serialize(file, o);
    }

    public class LowercaseContractResolver : DefaultContractResolver
    {
        protected override string ResolvePropertyName(string propertyName)
        {
            return Char.ToLowerInvariant(propertyName[0]) + propertyName.Substring(1);
        }
    }
}

It assures all my json keys are lowercase starting according to json "rules". Formats it cleanly indented and ignores nulls in the output. Aslo by adding a StringEnumConverter it prints enums with their string value.

Personally I find this the cleanest I could come up with, without having to dirty the model with annotations.

usage:

    internal void SaveJson(string fileName)
    {
        // serialize JSON directly to a file
        using (StreamWriter file = File.CreateText(@fileName))
        {
            LowercaseJsonSerializer.Serialize(file, jsonobject);
        }
    }

Answer 6

For ASP.Net core Just add the following to your Startup Class:

JsonConvert.DefaultSettings = (() =>
        {
            var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings();
            settings.Converters.Add(new StringEnumConverter { AllowIntegerValues = false });
            return settings;
        });