How to serialize anonymous object to JSON without including property name

Question

I have the following code:

///<summary>
///In this case you can set any other valid attribute for the editable element. 
///For example, if the element is edittype:'text', we can set size, maxlength,
///etc. attributes. Refer to the valid attributes for the element
///</summary>
public object OtherOptions { get; set; }
public override string ToString()
{
   return this.ToJSON();
}

I need to get the anonymous object from the OtherOptions property and serialize each property of the anonymous object as it were from the main object.

E.g.:

OtherOptions = new { A = "1", B = "2" }

If I serialize it, it will be (or something like this):

OtherOptions: {
A: "1",
B: "2"
}

Is it possible to have A and B at the same level of OtherOptions without explicitly removing it.

Short answer: no. You'll have to finagle with the object graph or use a custom object serialization. — user2864740, Dec 19 '13 at 01:59

crad · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-19T07:28:10.610

Ok this is just ugly and I don't recommend doing it but it does what you want...

Essentially, it creates a Dictionary of just the properties you want and then serializes that dictionary.

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();

        var obj = new {Prop1 = "val1", OtherOptions = new {A = "1", B = "2"}};

        IDictionary<string, object> result = new Dictionary<string, object>();
        foreach (var kv in GetProps(obj))
        {
            if (!kv.Key.Equals("OtherOptions"))
                result.Add(kv);
        }
        foreach (var kv in GetProps(obj.OtherOptions))
        {
            result.Add(kv);
        }
        var serialized = serializer.Serialize(result);
    }

    static IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, object>> GetProps(object obj)
    {
        var props = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(obj);
        return
            props.Cast<PropertyDescriptor>()
                 .Select(prop => new KeyValuePair<string, object>(prop.Name, prop.GetValue(obj)));
    }

serialized becomes

{"Prop1":"val1","A":"1","B":"2"}

You could use an attribute on the field you want to ignore and then check for that attribute in the GetProps method and not return if exists.

Again, I do not recommend doing this.

How to serialize anonymous object to JSON without including property name

1 Answers1