Serialize a Dictionary as JSON object using DataContractJsonSerializer

c#, dictionary, json, serialization

Solution

Ok, let say you have:

[DataContract]
public class MyObject
{
    [DataMember(Name = "extra_data")]
    public Dictionary<string, string> MyDictionary { get; set; } 

}

Then you can use `DataContractJsonSerializerSettings` with `UseSimpleDictionaryFormat` set to true, something like this:

    var myObject = new MyObject { MyDictionary = new Dictionary<string, string> { { "key1", "value1" }, { "key2", "value2" } } };

    DataContractJsonSerializerSettings settings = new DataContractJsonSerializerSettings { UseSimpleDictionaryFormat = true };

    DataContractJsonSerializer serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(MyObject), settings);

    var result = string.Empty;

    using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
    {
        serializer.WriteObject(ms, myObject);

        result = Encoding.Default.GetString(ms.ToArray());
    }

Problem

I have an `[DataContract]` object that has some properties and is serialized to JSON using `DataContractJsonSerializer`. One of the properties is of type `Dictionary<string, string>` and when the serialization happens it produces the following JSON schema. ``` "extra_data": [ { "Key": "aKey", "Value": "aValue" } ] ``` Now I need the JSON schema to be like this ``` "extra_data": { "aKey": "aValue" } ``` You can never of course know before what the values are, it is a `Dictionary` that the user will set keys and values. I'm thinking if this can happen using anonymous types, or is there a configuration I can take to accomplish my goal? Thank you.

Original source

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