Enum serialization as string without string quotes

Question

I want to serialize enum as string using JSON.NET but I want Enum value to serialize without string quotes

    [JsonConverter(typeof(StringEnumConverter))]
    enum Gender { Male, Female }

    class Test
    {
        public Gender { get; set; }
    }

Right now I'm getting output as { "Gender": "Male" }

{ "Gender": Male }  //Male is without quotes

Why would you want this? Strings have to have quotes in JSON. — kara, Jul 19 '19 at 08:29
What are you trying to do? Are you assuming there's going to be a javascript variable with the same name, or...? JSON doesn't have an enum type, so you have to choose between string and number - and strings need to be quoted. — Luaan, Jul 19 '19 at 08:35

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 19 '19 at 08:32

It is not possible because that json will be invalid. You can check how valid json looks like on https://jsonlint.com.

All JSON Convert libraries are following valid json structure, you can always write your own json converter to do that, but I wouldn't recommend that at all.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 19 '19 at 08:34

This is not possible (and really not recommended) because it does not respect JSON syntax.

See : [https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_json_syntax.asp][1]

In JSON, values must be one of the following data types:

a string a number an object (JSON object) an array a boolean null

Enum serialization as string without string quotes

2 Answers2