Get formatted JSON in C#

This post will discuss how to get formatted JSON in C#.

By default, JSON is serialized without any white space. To improve readability, it is often desired to get an indented JSON. There are several options to achieve that in C#:

1. Using `JsonSerializer.Serialize()` method

For .NET versions 4.7.2 and above, you can use the JsonSerializer.Serialize() method from System.Text.Json namespace to format a JSON string. It accepts the JsonSerializerOptions class to control the conversion behavior. The WriteIndented property indicates whether JSON should use pretty printing. To pretty-print the JSON, set the WriteIndented option to true, as the following example illustrates.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Text.Json;

using System.Text.Json.Serialization;

public class Customer

{

public string Name { get; set; }

public int Age { get; set; }

}

public class Example

{

public static void Main()

{

List<Customer> customers = new List<Customer>();

customers.Add(new Customer {Name = "Chris", Age = 25});

customers.Add(new Customer {Name = "Jennifer", Age = 20});

var options = new JsonSerializerOptions { WriteIndented = true };

string json = JsonSerializer.Serialize(customers, options);

Console.WriteLine(json);

}

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Output:
[ { "Name": "Chris", "Age": 25 }, { "Name": "Jennifer", "Age": 20 } ]

To prettify a JSON string, you can deserialize it first using the JsonSerializer.Deserialize() method.

using System;

using System.Text.Json;

using System.Text.Json.Serialization;

public class Customer

{

public string? Name { get; set; }

public int Age { get; set; }

}

public class Example

{

public static void Main()

{

string jsonString = "[{\"Name\":\"Chris\",\"Age\":25},{\"Name\":\"Jennifer\",\"Age\":20}]";

var parsedJson = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<List<Customer>>(jsonString);

var options = new JsonSerializerOptions { WriteIndented = true };

string formattedJson = JsonSerializer.Serialize(parsedJson, options);

Console.WriteLine(formattedJson);

}

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Output:
[ { "Name": "Chris", "Age": 25 }, { "Name": "Jennifer", "Age": 20 } ]

2. Using `JsonConvert.SerializeObject()` method

Another option is to use the JsonConvert.SerializeObject() method (available in Newtonsoft.Json namespace) from the Json.NET library to serialize an object to a formatted JSON string. The following code example demonstrates calling this method:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using Newtonsoft.Json;

public class Customer

{

public string Name { get; set; }

public int Age { get; set; }

}

public class Example

{

public static void Main()

{

List<Customer> customers = new List<Customer>();

customers.Add(new Customer {Name = "Chris", Age = 25});

customers.Add(new Customer {Name = "Jennifer", Age = 20});

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(customers.ToArray(), Formatting.Indented);

Console.WriteLine(json);

}

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Output:
[ { "Name": "Chris", "Age": 25 }, { "Name": "Jennifer", "Age": 20 } ]

The following code converts an existing JSON string to a formatted JSON string, without deserializing it into a typed object.

using System;

using Newtonsoft.Json;

public class Example

{

public static void Main()

{

string jsonString = "[{\"Name\":\"Chris\",\"Age\":25},{\"Name\":\"Jennifer\",\"Age\":20}]";

var parsedJson = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(jsonString);

string formattedJson = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(parsedJson, Formatting.Indented);

Console.WriteLine(formattedJson);

}

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Output:
[ { "Name": "Chris", "Age": 25 }, { "Name": "Jennifer", "Age": 20 } ]

3. Using `JToken.FromObject()` method

Alternatively, you can use the JToken.FromObject() method (available in Newtonsoft.Json.Linq namespace) from the Json.NET library that returns a JToken with the value of the specified object. Then invoke the ToString() on this token, which returns the indented JSON.

using System;

using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;

using System.Collections.Generic;

public class Customer

{

public string Name { get; set; }

public int Age { get; set; }

}

public class Example

{

public static void Main()

{

List<Customer> customers = new List<Customer>();

customers.Add(new Customer {Name = "Chris", Age = 25});

customers.Add(new Customer {Name = "Jennifer", Age = 20});

string formattedJson = JToken.FromObject(customers).ToString();

Console.WriteLine(formattedJson);

}

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Output:
[ { "Name": "Chris", "Age": 25 }, { "Name": "Jennifer", "Age": 20 } ]

To prettify an existing JSON without deserializing it into a .NET type, you can do like:

using System;

using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;

public class Example

{

public static void Main()

{

string jsonString = "[{\"Name\":\"Chris\",\"Age\":25},{\"Name\":\"Jennifer\",\"Age\":20}]";

string formattedJson = JToken.Parse(jsonString).ToString();

Console.WriteLine(formattedJson);

}

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Output:
[ { "Name": "Chris", "Age": 25 }, { "Name": "Jennifer", "Age": 20 } ]

That’s all about getting formatted JSON in C#.

1. Using JsonSerializer.Serialize() method

2. Using JsonConvert.SerializeObject() method

3. Using JToken.FromObject() method

Share this:

1. Using `JsonSerializer.Serialize()` method

2. Using `JsonConvert.SerializeObject()` method

3. Using `JToken.FromObject()` method